


Who's Savior Are You?

by MadamKhaos



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: BAMF Luna Lovegood, Canon Related, Death, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Fun, Magic, Master of Death Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom is a Good Friend, Potions Master Draco Malfoy, Seer Luna Lovegood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:40:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 47,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22289557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadamKhaos/pseuds/MadamKhaos
Summary: Leilani Potter turned 18 and went through a painful magical inheritance that has her waking up looking different than she had the night before. Gringotts sends out a letter and to her surprise she learns something rather sinister about her life. In search of answers, she's led to the little town of Storybrooke, Maine. Will she finally find happiness and family after living through one war only to find herself in the middle of another battle?
Relationships: Aurora/Belle (Once Upon a Time), Baelfire | Neal Cassidy/Emma Swan, Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Harry Potter, Elsa (Disney)/Draco Malfoy, Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Robin Hood, Hades/Wicked Witch of the West | Zelena, Huntsman | Sheriff Graham/Red Riding Hood | Ruby, Luna Lovegood/Mad Hatter | Jefferson, Merida/Mulan (Once Upon a Time), Prince Charming | David Nolan/Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard, Queen of Hearts | Cora/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold
Comments: 57
Kudos: 378





	1. Chapter 1

Albus Dumbledore found a way to travel between dimensions. It had taken him a rather long time but after years of information gathering, he'd done it. He was only here for one reason and one reason only. He needed a Savior. What better person to be the savior than the child that this young woman just gave birth to?

He knew who the child's parents were and given that they were both powerful, she would be as well. While the mother was being taken care of by the midwife in this hovel of a place, he disillusioned himself and slid towards the baby. Before either could realize it, he'd already whisked the girl away. There was no reason for him to stay any longer within this realm and so he quickly made way to his own. 

It was a rather simple trip if you discount all the time it took to figure out how to actually enter this dimension. 

He quickly appeared close to Hogwarts and made his way inside. Once within his office after not being stopped by anyone on his way, he through some Floo Powder within the fire and shouted 'Potter Manor'. Dumbledore stepped within the flames and entered the sitting room where his two favorite students sat with one another.

"Albus! We didn't know you were coming over," James said as he stood up. 

Lily, ever the more observant, noticed the child within his arms. "And who's this, Albus?"

"This child was left out in the Forbidden Forest," he grew solemn as he talked, "I know how you both have tried for a child and was wondering if you'd care for her?"

"It's a girl," Lily asked softly as she stepped forward and asked permission to take the child. Albus handed the baby over. He didn't think she wanted a response and it was her merely talking to herself.

"You know that we would be happy to take care of her, Albus. We'll need to blood adopt her but I don't see there being any other issues. Thank you for thinking of us," James said.

"Think nothing of it! Well, I shall be off now. I've had a rather trying day."

With that, Albus Dumbledore left the stolen child with the couple and stepped back through the flames.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last Chapter was so short due to it being a Prologue. I accidentally titled it Chapter 1 so I stuck with it. I'm reposting this fic to Archive but I had first begun posting it on Wattpad. In case people are confused why it's in two locations.

Leilani was rather weary but she was content where she was finally staying. She was currently at one of the Potter Manors after she turned 17 and was given her Lordship rings. To say she was surprised would be an understatement. She was now the Head of House to two Ancient and Noble families. Her Godfather had named her the heir for the Black family before his passing. It had really made her silly at the thought of how angered most of those Purebloods got when they found out a woman had become 'Lord' to both the Potter and Black family. 

She was sitting on her bed as she stared at her ceiling. It had always been like this on this day. Leilani could never sleep until it had finally reached midnight on her birthday. The clock was ticking and as she used her wand to tell the time she realized it was only two more minutes now.

It was rather lonely in this large Manor but she had her House Elves. After the war it felt as though the 'Golden Trio' just drifted apart. When she looked back she understood why but that didn't mean she wasn't hurt about it. Ron was a jealous shite and Hermoine just agreed with everything Ron said. It hurt that her closest friend would bail on her for a guy but she wasn't going to dwell on it. Sometimes, if she allowed herself, she'd feel rather spiteful and want to do rather mean things in retaliation but she curbed those impulses.

The clock flickered to 12:00 a.m. and there was suddenly the sound as if a bomb went off. Pain was the only thing Leilani could feel at the moment. She wanted so badly to scream but it was as though her throat was clogged. It wasn't even possible to take a breath. The pain was so crippling and she was turning purple from lack of oxygen. Thankfully she passed out finally from both the pain and not being able to breathe. Her magic took control and began to fix the damage done to her by the meddler as well as due to her inheritance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leilani woke slowly and groaned at the aching feel of her body. She sat up with a wince as she realized that there was tapping at her window. It took her a minute to finally reach it to allow the owl inside. It gave her a hoot of indignation for having left it outside for who knows how long.

"I'm terribly sorry. I don't know how long I've been out for."

It didn't deem her excuse good enough and merely shook it's leg at her. She retrieved the letter and it flew back out of the room. The letter was embossed with the Gringotts seal so she opened it up to read what was inside. 

Leilani Potter,

We here at Gringotts congratulate you on your Magical Inheritance and hope you are receiving this letter well. At your earliest convenience we'd like you to arrive to hear the voice orbs left in our care by your late parents.

Sincerely, 

Griphook

Leilani was honestly confused but she brushed that off. It would seem that her parents left her more than just material things. She set the letter down and began to walk to the bathroom but something caught her eye. As she passed by the light there was a slight reflection on her skin which made her also realize that she hadn't put her glasses on when she woke up. Leilani looked over to her bedside and.. yes.. they were still sitting there innocuous. Maybe it was part of her inheritance? But then she remembered that something on her body had shined. 

She narrowed her eyes as she looked down trying to figure out what had given off a slight glint only to have her eyes widen. Her arm lifted up to her face and she saw what looked like crystal like scales littering her flesh. The other arm was also lifted and they were there as well. Leilani had a minor panic attack before she ran into the bathroom to look at herself. 

The person staring back at her wasn't the same person she had seen yesterday. Her previously unruly brown hair was now black with a slight wave to it as it fell to her lower back. She'd been pretty before but now she was gorgeous. Cupid bow lips replaced slightly thin lips, the angular jaw was replaced with a slightly pointed chin and her nose that previously was a little too long was now petite on her face. She'd never been vain but she could see the differences for what they were. For Merlin's sake! Even her eyelashes were longer and more full than they'd been before. 

But those differences were discarded as she stared fixedly at the scales- SCALES! - covering her body. They were hardly noticeable honestly but now that she knew they were there it was impossible to not see them. Her eyes were an eerie yellowish green that put her previous killing curse green to shame. What was going on? Having a Magical Inheritance didn't make you completely change like this. Maybe she should get over to Gringotts and figure out what was going on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No one recognized her and that was a good thing as she made her way into Gringotts. It didn't take long before they brought her to the room she was looking for and that was only after she brought out the letter she'd been given since they hadn't believed she was who she said she was.

Griphook sat behind his desk looking a lot better than the last time she'd seen him.

"You're looking better, Griphook."

"Thank you, Lady Potter-Black. If I may say, you're looking rather different yourself."

Well, that was the crux of the problem. 

"You wouldn't happen to know why I look like this, would you?"

"First, let us listen to the Voice Orb left behind by the late Mr. and Mrs. Potter," he said.

He brought out a crystal orb with grey smoke within and moved a fingernail across it in a certain pattern before it floated into the air. Her mother's voice came out.

"Leilani, if you're hearing this then your Father and I couldn't be there for your 18th birthday. I'm truly sorry but I hope you've lived a happy and fulfilling life so far. If I allowed your father to use this he'd probably get sidetracked and begin talking about his many adventures rather than what I wanted you to hear. When you were a child you were blood adopted by both James and I. Albus came to us with you in his arms and told us that he had found you within the Forbidden Forest. As time has gone on, he has become increasingly strange and I'm honestly unsure what to believe. Your father wax poetic about him but .. I don't know. He's cast the Fidelius with Peter instead of Sirius for us and if the worst happens.. I hope Sirius takes care of you like we would've. It doesn't matter now because you're officially 18. My baby girl is grown up and I'm not even there to see it. I bet you're beautiful Leilani. Before we blood adopted you, I took a bit of your blood and did an Lineage test to see who your parents were and .. I'm honestly baffled at the results. I've left them there for you to find. You can take another one though to see if anything has updated or changed since the last. Just know that we love you, sweetie. No matter what."

Leilani was shocked. She was adopted! And found in the Forbidden Forest?? But her mother said that she hadn't believed Dumbledore. If she was being honest, even she sometimes didn't believe Albus Dumbledore had been the Light and caring Grandfatherly figure he portrayed himself as. 

She looked up. "Did she leave this Lineage Test with you? And is there a way for me to have another one done?"

"Yes. Here's the one she had done and here's the paper needed for another. You merely need to give a drop of blood for the magic to work."

She quickly cut the pad of her thumb and let it drip on the paper before grabbing the other paper as she stuck her thumb in her mouth. 

Leilani Potter

Adopted Mother: Lily Potter

Adopted Father: James Potter

Birth Mother: Cora the Miller's Daughter

Birth Father: Rumplestiltskin

Sister: Zelena

Brother: Baelfire

She set the paper down in confusion and looked at the other paper that she picked up. 

Leilani Potter

Adopted Mother: Lily Potter

Adopted Father: James Potter

Birth Mother: Queen of Hearts

Birth Father: Mr. Gold

Sister: The Wicked Witch of the West

Brother: Neal Cassidy

Sister: Regina Mills

This was so confusing! How could her birth parents names change?!

"I don't understand. Why did their names change?"

Griphook took the papers and raised an eyebrow at the rather strange names and changes. 

"If someone is known by one name rather than the other than it would change. At the time of your first Lineage test, they were known by these names by everyone but now they are known by these new names. It's very similar to Voldemort. His Lineage Test would've shown up as 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' instead of 'Voldemort' because more people knew him as the first one or referred to him as such."

That made sense but that also made her rather confused on how her sister and mother could go from actual names to something like 'The Wicked Witch of the West' or 'The Queen of Hearts' whereas her Father had gone from Rumplestiltskin to a Mr. Gold. She pushed that aside in favor of looking at the pulsing colors of the words. 

"Does this mean that they're alive?"

"Yes."

It was such a simple answer but it was a shock for Leilani. She had siblings! She had parents! Parents who had apparently left her in a forest or something else nefarious. Don't think she forgot her mother's warning or the fact that Dumbledore had KNOWN that Sirius wasn't guilty. He'd set up the Fidelius himself! Dumbledore was a liar and she wouldn't believe that her parents had left her in a forest where he found her before she even met them. She'd get the answer from her birth parents before coming to a decision on whether to be a part of their life. She had siblings! It still baffled her that she was a sister to someone. 

"Is there a way that I can track them down," she asked as she looked up at Griphook.

"Yes but it'll come with a price."

"Name it."

"25,000 Galleons."

He kept a straight face. Leilani thought about it and realized it was probably something illegal for it to cost that much. She nodded her head in agreement and there was a flash between the both of them. Her eyes widened at that and realized Griphook was just as surprised.

He cleared his throat before bringing out what looked like a watch. 

"You add your blood to this and it will act similar to the Lineage Test and show you your immediate relatives. It also acts as a tracking spell and will tell you their exact position. The Galleons will be taken from one of your Vaults as the transaction is now complete."

"Thank you so much Griphook."

"You're most welcome Lady Potter-Black."

Leilani quickly left Gringotts as she began to think about what she'll bring with her in her search for her family.


	3. Chapter 3

Leilani figured that the first people she should find are her parents but when she tried to track down her mother it wouldn't show up with any information on the watch. She did the same for her father and found out he was in a town called Storybrooke in Maine. Were her parents American? It was all so confusing but she didn't dither on it. Instead she began to pack her essentials within an expanded trunk she'd purchased. 

The House Elves put all the things she would need in case of an emergency, such as a large tent, within the trunk while she went out to purchase clothing. It had been only the second time she'd gone out to buy herself clothes so this time she bought an abundance. Most were dragon hide skin tight pants and a loose flowing white shirt that tapered at the elbows but hung off one shoulder or exposed both shoulders. They had a crisscross of string on the back which left her shoulders and half her back exposed. This allowed people to see the tattoos that covered her back and wrapped around her shoulders. 

She'd gotten black vines that wrote Freedom in cursive with red roses ending on her shoulders. There was also a large pheonix and Basilisk that took up her entire back with it's wings ending below her breasts while the Basilisk tail ended on her thigh. Overrall they were beautiful pieces. 

Today was the day she was going to America. She'd already gotten an International Portkey a week prior. There was only one person she had let known what she was planning on doing and they were going to be coming with her. As she thought about that person they suddenly stepped through her Floo.

"Luna! I'm glad you're coming with me!"

Leilani had rushed forward to encircle the smaller girl. Leilani was about 5'6'' but Luna was still shorter than her. 

"I'm so glad you're coming with me," she whispered a little hoarse with emotions that have been building up.

"Of course I'm coming with you, Lei. I have hope that we'll even see a Crumple-Horned Snorcack while we're there," she said in her usual dreamy voice. 

Leilani chuckled, "I'm sure if it's you and I, we will definitely find them."

Luna smiled sweetly as she asked whether Leilani was ready.

"Yes. Let me just grab my trunk and the portkey."

She quickly made her way to the trunk and shrunk it with barely a wave of her hand. A purple cloud encompassed it before it was as tiny as one of her fingernails. She'd found out how much easier her magic came to her after her Magic Inheritance. It was kind of strange though that anytime she used her magic it looked like smoke. 

"Hopefully we don't run across any heliopaths or nargles on our adventure," Luna said as she gathered around the portkey with Leilani.

"I'm sure everything will work itself out."

There was suddenly the feeling of a hook at their navel and they were whisked away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Both girls had rented a car as soon as they left the Portkey office in the magical district of New York. Apparently this one was the closest International Portkey office to Maine. It took them over a day to get to Maine and they pulled into a Motel for some well needed rest. 

"It'll be another couple hours until we get to this Storybrooke apparently. As far as my watch is telling me. We're getting closer to my Father. I'm kind of nervous. What if he really did leave me in the Forest?"

"Not everything is always as it seems."

"You saw that my family has a lot of Fairytale Character names. Don't you find that strange? I mean most of them aren't even the heroes of stories but the villains," Leilani said in exasperation.

"Books aren't always completely honest. You should know that more than anyone," Luna said gently.

Luna was right though. Leilani had to hire a solicitor to sue those Authors who had written about her life as though they knew her personally and don't get her started on that awful paper. 

"Isn't that ironic coming from a Ravenclaw?"

Luna just smiled before shutting her eyes to go to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were in their rented car, parked on the side of the road. It seemed an odd thing to do but Leilani was narrowing her eyes at what she could feel coming from in front of them. 

"Oh my! It's simply surrounded by humdingers."

That about summed up what Leilani was thinking.. in a more unrealistic way she supposed. Humdingers must be key word for curses because that's what this town was. It was completely cursed. She was now wondering if they would be even able to get inside of this place. 

"One way to find out," she mumbled to herself as she put the car back into gear. 

The car slowly inched forward and a shimmering veil seemed to encompass them as the car crossed the town line. Both girls shivered at the feel of it and Leilani had to brake because something appeared in front of the car. If she were to give a guess she'd have said it was a person but it resembled a Dementor more than a human. 

"Oh," Luna said breathlessly beside her, "Lei, I didn't know you'd mastered all three."

Leilani was confused and a little scared. The thing just stood in front of their car as she gripped the steering wheel tightly.

"What do you mean," she asked Luna.

"The three Hallows."

The three Hallows? As in the Deathly Hallows? Was she insinuating that this was Death? And if so, why was Death in front of them and showing up now?

Mistresss it's voice whispered throughout the car.

"Uhh.. Umm," she looked to Luna but got no help there, "Yes?"

Was it conceited to think it was speaking to her rather than Luna or was it just logical? She wasn't completely sure. It didn't really matter anyways as the thing- Death- spoke again.

You've entered another Death's jurissdiction. You'll sstill have your powerss but I'll leave you in it's capable handss. You can not interfere with life and death though. There's always a price to be paid.

It vanished and their goosebumps receded at it's departure.

"Well," Leilani croaked before clearing her throat. "I'm the Mistress of Death?"

It came out as a sort of squeak but Luna didn't laugh at her. In fact, Luna was uncharacteristically solemn. 

"It'll be fine, Leilani."

If she thought so, then it must be. Leilani had always thought that Luna was a bit of a seer so she took her advice seriously. 

"Where to first? Local bed and breakfast? I don't think this place has a motel let alone a hotel," Leilani said as she hit the gas again. They were clearly going to just let the matter of Death appearing go for now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inside a shop within the little town of Storybrooke stood a man with a cane. He'd been going over the rent that was due him when a shockwave of magic reached him. It was absurd that there was such a thing within this land of none that he immediately went on alert. Had Regina gotten magic to flow here? When he attempted to use his own, there was nothing to show. 

So it wasn't Regina. However, that magic felt very close to him. Dare he say that it was rather intimate seeing as how it had practically dripped with the power he used to wield. Interesting. He'd have to make his way to Granny's to welcome this new person. Whoever they should be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sitting behind her Mayor's desk, Regina pushed some of her papers around in frustration. She was still reeling over the fact that Henry had brought his birth mother home. Not only that but the damned woman wouldn't leave town. It was worrying because the clock had even begun again just the other day. Why was time beginning again? This town was frozen. She knew this for a fact because she had cast the thrice damned curse herself. Extracting her father's heart to complete it. 

As she mulled over her current problems there was a sudden shockwave of magic that reached her.

What was that?! There's no way that there was magic here. It was the land of no magic. Rumple had told her this. Had he lied? Of course he wouldn't lie but he could omit truths. Maybe he had meant their town would be non-magical? Was there magic outside of Storybrooke? Who had brought magic here? So many questions and no one had answers. She'd need to investigate. 

It didn't help that the magic had felt so intimate to her. It reminded her too much of her mother. Cora. It couldn't be Cora though because she was still in Wonderland when the Enchanted Forest was whisked away by the curse. Regina slammed her hand on the desk in frustration. This was all that stupid fairytale book's fault. All Snow White's fault. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luna and Leilani pulled into a freed space across from the local bed and breakfast and climbed out of the car. The air was cool this time of year but still had the last dregs of warmth. 

Leilani wore her dragon hide skin tight pants and one of her green flowing shirts that left her back open. Her boots were basilisk skin and ended right below the knee. Today she'd allowed her hair to be pulled up in a messy bun and hadn't bothered with anything but mascara. She was absolutely stunning and the sun glinted off her scaled skin giving her an ethereal look. It almost seemed like she was dusted with glitter. No one else would be able to see the scales but they were still there. 

Luna was in a flowing light blue dress that ended in long sleeves that covered her hands. It slightly dragged on the ground behind her but it had a sort of charm on it that would make sure it didn't get dirty. Her white blonde hair waved silkily down her back as her grey blue eyes sparkled and took in the little town around them. 

They looked complete opposites but it was fine. 

"Well, let's get this show on the road. Or across the road," Leilani said with a smirk as she looped her arm with Luna's.

They made their way across the street as pedestrians seemed to stop and stare at them. They opened the door to Granny's and stepped inside. It was rather homey and reminded Leilani, sadly, of the Weasley's. 

A young woman with brown hair and red streaks throughout her hair stepped forward eyeing them up.

"What can I get for ya?"

"Oh, well actually we were going to inquire about a room to stay in. However, we haven't eaten in a couple of hours so whatever is the special will do," Leilani answered as she tugged Luna towards a table. 

She noticed a blonde woman with a red leather jacket sitting at the bar who had turned to regard them both. Leilani smiled and gave a little nod towards her. Blondie gave a small smile and a nod back. Somehow, Leilani knew that this woman was also a stranger to the town. It was the way that the others within the Diner seemed to stare at them both.

"I'll let Granny know and get you those specials," Ruby answered before walking away. Leilani noticed how Ruby seemed to share a rebellious streak with her. 

Luna hummed to herself as she sat down across from Leilani. Both girls were aware of the magic that the girl with the red jacket had in spades but the other woman seemed completely clueless that they shared in the same thing. 

"Do you think she's clueless," Leilani whispered to Luna.

Luna hummed and gave a nod as her eyes slightly unfocused. Looks like this town was more interesting than just a curse it had over it.


	4. Chapter 4

"New to town?"

Leilani looked up and was slightly surprised that the woman in the red jacket had walked over with her cup.

"Yes. Yourself?" 

"Take a seat," Luna said at the same time.

"I arrived a couple days back."

"Anything interesting around here," Leilani asked.

"Well, you could say that," she responded rather mysteriously, "Why'd you guys come to town?"

"I'm looking for my Father. I just found out I was adopted," Leilani answered. "I'm so sorry. My name is Leilani. This is my sister in all but blood, Luna."

"It's nice to meet you both. I'm Emma."

"It's nice to meet you Emma," the sentiment was given by both girls. Luna began to giggle softly with a delicate hand covering her lips. Her eyes went slightly unfocused before staring out the window. 

Emma stared enraptured for a second before turning back to Leilani with an inquisitive brow. 

"Don't mind Luna. She's rather dreamy like that. Why have you decided to come to this small place, if you don't mind me asking?"

Emma nodded in acknowledgement to the comment about Luna and mulled over whether to just say why she was there. It wasn't like the rest of the town didn't know and she didn't doubt these two would find out eventually if they stayed as well.

"My son came and got me." She paused and Leilani gave her a curious look. "I gave him up for adoption when he was born. He somehow found me and now here I am."

Leilani could see that it was slightly painful for the blonde. Whatever the problem seemed to be. Ruby came over with their food and set it down in front of them both. 

"Granny said when you both are finished to go around the path out there on the left and you can get to our bedrooms. She'll hand you the key over there."

"Thanks Ruby."

"You're welcome."

Ruby left with a smile and went back to cleaning tables.

"Well, we'll be here for a while. I hope we can go out to drink sometime. Or do something fun. There has to be something fun to do around here, right?"

"I'm unsure. There's the Rabbit Hole. That's the only place I've seen people go to have fun so far. Well I gotta get going. I'll see you both around," Emma said before standing up and leaving her empty cup on the bar for Ruby to get.

"She was interesting," Leilani said as she dug into the burger. 

Luna bit into the french fries on her plate with small nibbles. "Yes. She has a great destiny."

Leilani wasn't sure what that meant but she chose to ignore that. They both ate in companionable silence, occasionally talking about random things. It was when they were finishing up that the door chimed and drew Leilani's attention. Luna smiled peacefully and began humming a tune under her breath.

A man with brown hair with slight graying stepped into Granny's. Everyone seemed to go quiet and stare at him but the man wasn't minding them. He was staring at Leilani and Luna's table with a curious look. It was at this time that Leilani's watch chimed. She drew her gaze away and looked down in confusion. 

Mr. Gold- Arrived

Her eyes widened comically before looking sharply up again as though caught in headlights. He walked over on his cane.

"And who might you be, Dearie," he asked while looking at Leilani suspiciously. 

He wasn't even paying Luna any mind. Leilani looked around and swallowed nervously. Everyone was watching them. She wiped her hands on her dragon hide pants and scooted out of the booth to stand in front of him. 

"I know this is rather forward of me," she said. Her British accent catching his interest. "Would you be willing to talk to us in a more private place?"

"And why would I do that, Dearie?"

His tone sounded dangerous and a few patrons were worried about the new arrival to their town.

"Because what I have to say isn't something for the gossip column," she snapped. She was really nervous and when she was nervous her temper got the better of her. "Sorry."

He wasn't paying much attention though. Her eyes had turned a shade of yellow he was familiar with when she'd snapped at him. Now that he was really looking- he narrowed his eyes- she had scales covering her body. Only one- one- person had yellow eyes and scales. He clenched his jaw. 

"I believe you're right, dearie," he said before turning and walking out the door.

"Come on, Luna."

Luna got up and laced her arm with Leilani's and dragged her out the door to follow who they were sure was her father. 

"We'll go to my shop," he called over his shoulder. 

They easily caught up to him and kept pace. He would occasionally look at her from the corner of his eye which made her rather nervous. Which just made her clench her jaw in irritation. She merely wanted to know if he'd abandoned her in the Forbidden Forest. It wasn't much of a stretch seeing as he had a Scottish accent. Which meant he could've easily have been near Hogwarts. She also sensed the immense amount of Magic within him. 

It took them a while to reach his shop and when they got there he held the door open for them before shutting and locking it behind them. The shutters were lowered. 

"Now. I'd like to know who you are?"

"Did you leave me in the Forbidden Forest," she nearly shouted at. That hadn't been what she'd wanted to say but it was what she said anyhow. 

"I've no idea what this Forbidden Forest is, Dearie. I assure you that had I known about you, I'd not be leaving you in a Forest. I don't abandon me children," his brogue got more pronounced with his anger. 

A slight tension seeped out of Leilani at this. 

"You didn't know about me?"

Her voice was barely above a whisper but she knew he heard her. He began to walk around the counter to his back room and gestured for them to follow him. 

"No. Though by your looks I can guess at who your mother is and her- her I wouldn't put it past to leave a babe in the forest. She's done it once before."

"My sister," her voice shook a bit. 

He looked at her sharply. "You know?"

"I took a Lineage Test with blood magic. I'm using the same magic to find you," she lifted her wrist where the watch was. 

He stepped forward to look down with narrowed eyes as his hand gently took her wrist. 

"So it appears. Your sister Regina is in this town. The one to have cast this curse in the first place. Your brother however, is somewhere outside this town. I can't leave and I can't access my magic."

"I could.. I could look for my brother for you," she mumbled as he told them to sit down as he made them tea. 

"I'll worry about your brother. I'd rather learn more about you though. What's your name?"

There was a strange glint to his eyes as he asked this and then she remembered who he was before apparently being cursed. Rumpelstiltskin. 

Her back straightened as she looked him in the eyes, challenging. "My name is Leilani Potter-Black. But Luna calls me Lei."

She nodded towards her silent companion. Her father finally looked at Luna and saw her dreamy smile. 

"She has the sight. I've not seen someone with it.. in a long time."

"Luna is special," she said with a smirk. She took the tea he offered her and took a sip. "Good tea."

"Of course it is, Dearie. I made it."

She chuckled. "How could you not have known about me? You're Rumpelstiltskin."

He froze at her admission to knowing who exactly he was and eyed her curiously.

"You're not upset about finding out who I am?"

"I don't know your life and anything read about is largely embellished and sometimes you don't see the whole picture."

"I must assure you that I've done most of what has been said about me. There have been deals where someone exchanged their children for what I gave them."

"Well, who in their right mind would trade their child? Although it is upsetting to hear about it that doesn't mean that you're the bad person in this type of situation. Wouldn't the one giving up their child be in the wrong?"

"Most don't see it that way, dearie."

Leilani shrugged a careless shoulder. She decided to focus on something else. "Do you think my sister would want to meet me?"

"It's hard to say. Regina has always been rather fickle with her emotions. Zelena is more volatile in my opinion. Your safest reunion would be with Bae but Regina is either hit or miss. You can contact her if you want. I'll say though now, she has an adopted son and is currently rather mercurial because his birth mother is in town."

He chuckled at the last sentence. "I'm also rather curious on why your magic seems positively dark. There was also a whiplash of magic when you entered town."

For some reason she felt like she could trust her father. So she went on to explain. "Well, when we entered there was an unexpected guest who popped up in front of our car."

"Do tell," he leaned forward. 

"Death," Luna breathed out. It was so sudden for her to speak up that Leilani jumped a bit in shock. 

She patted her chest nervously, "You frightened me Luna."

Luna hummed in acknowledgement before giggling softly. 

"Death? What does she mean," Rumpelstiltskin asked curiously. 

"The embodiment of Death popped up in front of our car. Apparently I'm now it's Mistress?"

Rumple began to giggle one of his high pitched ones that sounded slightly demented as Leilani chuckled a bit at her father's antics. 

"Oh this is golden. The Dark One's daughter is the Mistress of Death. Don't we make a fine pair, dearie?"


	5. Chapter 5

Leilani felt like she was home for the first time while in the presence of her father but she felt kind of bad about ignoring Luna. 

"We should go and book that room at Granny's," Leilani finally said after drinking their third cup of tea with biscuits. 

"You could always stay with me," Rumple said as he also stood up with them.

"I'd feel as though I were imposing," she saw how he looked a bit down but none of those emotions shown on his face so she quickly said, "But if you could find us a permanent residence to stay we could pay for it."

"I'll find you a place to stay and it'll be my gift to you," he said.

When she went to protest he raised a hand. "Just take it as humoring your old man, dearie."

"Thank you... dad," she said slightly hesitantly before rushing forward and giving him a hug before quickly dragging Luna out the shop. 

Rumpelstiltskin stood there in shock for a minute or ten before snapping out of it. He had a daughter! A daughter that had his and Cora's wild streak it would seem. If they were back in the Enchanted Forest he knew that she would've been given hell for the artwork she showed on display and that's not to mention those leather trousers- dragon hide actually- as his daughter had corrected. 

His daughter was an adult. He'd missed her entire childhood. Although she hadn't talked much about it, he could tell that she hadn't been given a good one. He'd eventually get the truth out of her. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm so sorry, Luna. I seemed to have gotten away with myself."

"It's okay, Lei. I'm happy that you're happy."

They were walking back towards Granny's together, arm and arm. That's when it happened. Her watch chimed again and she quickly looked down in surprise. 

Regina- Arrived

Her head snapped up and looked into the brown eyes of a woman with short black hair that matched her own. Before she could stop herself she smiled broadly and happily at the woman. If the blood test was correct, Regina had actually been born after her. However, by their looks, Regina looked a bit older than her. 

"Luna can you give me a moment. I'm unsure how she'll react to me and I'd rather it be a private conversation with just the two of us in case she gets upset."

"Okay, Lei. I'll go to Granny's and get our room. It'll be number 5."

She didn't question how she knew that but instead watched as Luna walked past Regina and said something too quiet for her to hear. By the way Regina went rigid and stared with narrowed eyes at Leilani she didn't know if it was good or bad news. 

Leilani put her hands in her pockets and casually walked forward as they had a staring contest. Lei kept the smile on her face though, trying to be as welcoming and pleasant as she could be. 

"Who are you?"

Apparently Regina could feel her magic. As she had gotten closer to her sister she could feel her sister's magic try to come to the surface like her father's had done. 

Leilani glanced around and noticed that the pedestrians seemed to try and stay clear of Regina. It would be alright to talk to her here she supposed. However, she decided to say it in a roundabout way.

"I'm the daughter of Cora."

She watched as Regina became stunned and couldn't hide the gleeful smile she had on her face at the fact that she got her sister to show some type of an emotion. Having noticed Leilani chuckling at her slip she quickly pursed her lips and side glared at Lei.

"I see. I wasn't made aware of her having another child."

"That must be because it was before your time," she said subtly as she glanced around. "However, had I been able to see you I would've been there. I have been here since I was a baby. Supposedly found abandoned in the forest."

"You know?" 

Leilani figured Regina meant about the curse so she nodded her head in affirmative. 

"Would you like to come back to our room at Granny's to talk?"

Regina collected herself as she processed the fact that the young woman in front of her was apparently her older sister but seemed to be younger than her. She thought over her sister's invite and finally shook her head once. Seeing the look of dejection on Leilani's face she quickly amended her response.

"I have a son. I need to get back home. How about coming over tomorrow for dinner," she asked hesitantly.

Leilani smiled happily and her magic seemed to sing with her joy. Regina had never seen magic like her sister's before even though it felt familiar. 

"I'd love to. Would it be alright to bring Luna or would you rather it just be us?"

"Is she your partner?"

Regina raised her eyebrow at her sister in query. 

"Of course not! She's the only one who's stuck by my side." 

Her sister nodded in acceptance. She knew all to well how hard it was to have someone like that.

"You can bring her, I suppose. I'll see you both tomorrow at 6 sharp," Regina said regally before turning on her heels and walking away. 

"I wish I could walk in heels like that," she mumbled as her sister disappeared around a corner.

"It's easy! If you need pointers just come to me," came a voice next to her.

She turned startled to see Ruby just beginning to sweep the ground outside. 

"You startled me, Ruby." 

Ruby twittered at Leilani's startled look before getting back to work. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day both Luna and Leilani were awoken by the town clock chiming at eight o'clock. 

"Ugh, why is it so bloody loud? I wouldn't have cared if it was just a tiny noise but it almost seems to echo. Right, Luna?"

"Yes. It is quite loud. Maybe acoustics are good here?"

"Or just magic," she responded. 

They both got out of their respective beds and began getting ready for the day. Last night they'd opted for taking a shower before bed. Not at the same time obviously. No matter how close they were, that would've been awkward. Thankfully there hadn't been communal showers at Hogwarts. It would've been a disaster for children going through puberty. 

"What do you want to do for the day? We're expected at Regina's for dinner tonight... actually, I forgot to ask her where she lives. We'd best stop by the Mayor's office and see if we can speak to her sometime today."

"We can search the forest for the Crumple-Horned Snorkack."

"Why not? It's not like we have anything better to do anyways. Exploring the woods sounds like fun. We can do that after we stop by to see my father and Regina though."

"We should also think about finding work. I know you don't need the money but it would keep us busy," Luna said airily as she spun in a circle, making her flowing white skirt to flutter around her. 

She had on a silver short sleeved v-neck and a white skirt that ended just below her knees. During the time that Leilani had been getting dressed it seems that she had time to use magic on her hair and braided the sides before tying it in the back, leaving the long tresses to fall gently behind her. 

"You should add flowers to the braids," Leilani suggested even as she magicked said flowers into Luna's hair for her. She'd gone with white lilies. 

Luna examined herself in the mirror and gave her a broad smile in thanks. 

"Let's go see Rumpelstiltskin!"

Luna looped an arm through Leilani's and began to skip while Lei walked beside her. She couldn't keep the amusement off her face all the way to the pawn shop. People stopped to stare at the pair but she was rather used to people staring at her for being 'the-girl-who-lived'. 

A bell chimed as they made it inside the store without Luna having to break her skipping. Rumpel looked up from some papers on the glass table in front of him to see the pair. His grin turned into a smirk as he noticed his daughter being half dragged by a skipping Luna. 

"Good morning, dearie. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, Dad. I was just coming by to see how your day was before Luna and I go off to explore the forest. Regina agreed to have dinner with me tonight at her home."

"She did? Well, that's better than how I thought she'd react."

"She was definitely shocked. It might've been more of a surprise to her since I'm technically her older sister and yet I'm younger than her."

Rumpelstiltskin chuckled at his girl. He honestly wanted to bundle her up and keep her locked away from everyone else. She was a young woman and he didn't even want to imagine anyone touching her inappropriately. Whoever won his daughter's heart had better be worthy. 

"Speaking of your youth," he began and she seemed to be confused on what this was about, "What does being the Mistress of Death entail?"

"I'm honestly not sure. I just found out yesterday that I had a title."

"Power always comes at a price, Dearie. Even being 'The Dark One' doesn't mean the price won't be paid. Being the Mistress of Death also comes at a price. Can you call forth Death?"

Leilani was a bit uncomfortable with bringing that thing anywhere near the closest people to her but if her father wanted her to summon Death, she would. She just didn't know how. Did she ask politely or was there some sort of ritual words to be spoken?

"Just call out it's name, Lei."

Luna was always so helpful.

"Death," she intoned in a sharper voice than she'd meant to use.

The shadows within the shop seemed to grow denser and a light coating of frost spread out along the walls and floor. Their breath misted in front of them as the shadows began forming into the vague shape of Death. 

Mistresss of Death. What have you called me forth for?

"My father wanted me to ask what price must be paid for the title of Mistress of Death that I've been given unintentionally."

Priceee. Priceee. Yessss. There'ss alwayss a pricee. For you, our Mistresss, eternal life. Never to die. Never to be at peace. Always alive until there's nothing left. When there is nothing left to die, so you will cease to exist. You will live as those you love die. Never to join them on the other side. Stuck betwixt, Mistresss.

Leilani felt as though the floor opened up beneath her and tears formed her eyes. Always alone? She'd live forever! There wouldn't be an option for her to die even if she wanted to. 

"Is there a way to give up being your Mistress," she asked with a panicked voice.

There has never been another and won't be one after you. You're our Mistresss from now until we are no more.

Leilani felt her legs begin to give out but Luna supported her as best she could. She felt as though she were in a sort of fog. This wasn't happening. It wasn't as though she wanted to die right now but how could she be expected to live literally forever?

Rumpel was concerned for his child's well being and quickly moved forward to help Luna.

The Dark One. Death intoned with a disquiet voice. You're also cursed to eternal life unless someone desperate carves your blade into your heart. Perhapss you should seek out your daughter to ssafe keep it. If the blade is hidden within a realm no one can reach but herself, you'd be free of the consequences your curse entailss.

Rumpel gave Death a cursory glance but ignored it to make sure Leilani was alright. Her eyes were a little to wide, a little bit glassy and practically overflowing with her power over Death. 

"Leave," she commanded after getting herself back together. 

Asss you wisssh.

When it left it felt like Leilani's strings were cut and the only thing keeping her afloat was her father. 

"Please don't leave me," she said as she leaned into him more than she'd done previously. Her tears slipped free of their confines and rained onto the sleeve of her father's suit jacket. 

"Never, Little Flower."


	6. Chapter 6

Leilani and Luna made their way to the Mayor's office after getting directions from her Father. She felt bad about breaking down on him when they'd only just met yesterday but she couldn't really help it. Most people wouldn't mind being immortal as long as they were able to die when they wanted to but she'd been told that this was a forever thing- until the last planet winks out of existence- kind of forever thing. That's a lot for anyone to have on their shoulders first thing in the morning.. or ever. 

"You shouldn't worry, Lei. Things have a way of sorting themselves out."

"Luna, I don't think being immortal until everything turns to dust is going to be sorting itself out anytime soon," Lei said as they walked down the path to the Mayor's Office. They climbed the stairs to reach the floor leading to Regina. 

"Not that, silly. But maybe there will be something that makes living that long worthwhile."

They ended their conversation as they arrived outside the Mayor's office door. Leilani peered around the door frame to look inside but she didn't see anyone inside. Both her and Luna stepped forward and stood staring inside trying to see if maybe Regina was hiding behind something and they hadn't been able to see her from the previous position.

"Are you looking for me," came a voice from behind them. 

Leilani squeaked and jumped in fright as she grabbed her chest. Luna just turned around serenely with a little smile as though she had known all along that Regina was behind them, which wouldn't surprise Lei if she did. 

"Regina! You gave me a fright!"

"I gave you a fright," Regina asked with a smirk as she stepped forward into her office. 

"Oh shush! I thought you'd be in your office not behind me. Sorry to stop by so early in the morning when we made plans for tonight but I remembered that I hadn't actually gotten your address last night and I didn't want to show up late trying to figure it out."

"It's on Miffin's St. The largest one. You shouldn't miss it. Where are you two off to?"

"Well, we just went to go see Dad but we were planning on searching the woods for creatures," Leilani explained.

Regina looked confused and asked, "Dad? What are you talking about?"

"Dad- you know- Rumpelstiltskin?" Leilani was honestly confused on why Regina wouldn't know that.

"Oh, Ew! Cora and The Dark One?"

"You didn't know? I thought he was your Father too?"

"No, fortunately. My Father was King Henry. I can't believe that Rumpelstiltskin has a child."

"If you're not his child than I'm going to assume Zelena isn't his either since he only seemed to be searching for my brother."

"Wait.. we have another sister?"

"Yes. She seems to be older than me so she'd be our oldest sister. I think if I were to guess, Zelena was born First to Cora. Baelfire is Father's first born and I was second born to both Cora and Father. Than that makes you the baby," she said cheekily as she looked at Regina. 

"Oh God. This is ridiculous. You look younger than me," Regina pointed out.

"I just turned 18. I think that the traveling between dimensions has large time differences."

"Yes, because I'm much older than 18. You're so young!"

"Hey! I'm a full grown adult," she said petulantly.

"Of course," Regina said with a smile that looked more like a shark's grin than an actual smile. 

"Well, we'll see you tonight and talk more then. If you need to find us... we'll be in the woods. We've got our cellphones though so call me if there's a change in plans," Leilani said before giving Regina her number. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Did you notice the apple tree was carved up. What's a queen without her red apples," Luna spoke up as they walked towards a path to head inside of the woods.

"What apple tree?"

"Why 'The Evil Queen's' apple tree of course."

"Let me guess.. Regina has an apple tree?"

"Well who else would it be?"

"You're right. Only my family would have such ostentatious title's."

Her Father was titled 'The Dark One', one sister 'The Evil Witch of the West', another sister 'The Evil Queen', and her Mother's title was 'The Queen of Hearts'. Let's not forget that Leilani had her own title of 'Mistress of Death'. It seems the only normal one in the family was her brother who was now going by Neal Cassidy instead of Baelfire.

"Let's go find that Crumple-Horned Snorkack." 

Leilani dragged Luna into the woods alongside her, pushing her thoughts to the back of her mind. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mary Margaret Blanchard, Emma Swan and Henry quickly made their way to the Hospital after Mary told them both about the John Doe having reached out for her hand after reading him the story of Snow White. Upon entering the Hospital room where he was being held they slowed down because of all the personnel in the area. The Sheriff, Graham turned around to halt them in their pursuit. 

"Henry? What are you doing here," he asked as he saw the three of them hurry towards him.

Mary-Margaret asked a little breathlessly from their jog to the Hospital, "Is it John Doe? Is he okay?"

Graham pursed his lips a bit before sighing. "He's missing."

Emma crossed her arms across her chest in thought as the three of them waited for Graham to expound on that. Graham turned back to look into the room and met the eyes of Regina standing next to the empty patient's bed. Regina quickly made her way out of the room and towards her son. 

She looked at Mary-Margaret and Emma and asked, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Her eyes moved towards Henry as she walked forward. "And you," she reached out to grab Henry's arm, "I thought that you were at the Arcade. Now you're lying to me?"

"What happened to John Doe? Did someone .. take him," Mary-Margaret asked Graham as she ignored Regina and Henry's conversation.

"We don't know yet. His IV's were ripped out but there's no sign for sure that there was a struggle," Graham answered her as he shook his head. 

Henry looked at Regina with narrowed eyes. "What did you do?"

Regina looked at her son with slightly widened eyes in surprise. "You think that I had something to do with this?"

"It is curious that the Mayor is here," Emma spoke up from where she stood with crossed arms.

"I'm here because I'm his emergency contact."

"You know him," Mary-Margaret asked.

"I found him," she said in response. "On the side of the road, years ago, with no I.D. I brought him here."

The Doctor that was overseeing John Doe walked up behind Regina as she finished her explanation. "Mayor Mill saved his life."

"Will he be okay," Mary-Margaret asked hurriedly of the Doctor.

"Okay? The man's been on feeding tubes for years and under constant supervision. He needs to get back here right away otherwise, quite honestly, 'okay' might be a pipe dream."

Emma shifted a bit. "Well than, let's quit yapping and start looking."

"That's what we're doing," Regina said. "Just stay out of this, Dear. And since I clearly can't keep you away from my son, I guess I'm just gonna have to keep my son away from you."

Regina grabbed Henry and began to walk past Emma. "Enjoy my shirt. Because that's all you're getting."

Emma raised a challenging eyebrow back at Regina even as she walked away with Henry in toe. Regina turned back around one more time and said, "Sheriff, find John Doe. You heard Doctor Whale, time is precious."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leilani and Luna were still walking through the woods and enjoying the nature in their surroundings when they heard the crunch of branches to their left. They looked over and saw Emma walking with two other people.

"Emma!"

Emma and the other two paused and looked over at them as they approached the group of three. Leilani noticed how they seemed to be searching for something. 

"Hey, Leilani and Luna. What are you two doing out here?"

"We've been exploring the woods to find the Crumple-Horned Snorkack," Luna answered dreamily.

"Of course," Emma responded a bit uncomfortably even as the other two looked on in confusion. 

"You say you've been out here exploring? Have you happened to see a man in a blue hospital gown anywhere," Mary-Margaret asked hurriedly.

"No. There haven't been any of those within the woods. At least none the way we came," Leilani answered as she pointed a thumb over her shoulder to indicate their path. 

Graham had already ignored the new people and crouched down to inspect the ground in front of them. 

"What is it," Emma asked when she noticed his pause. 

"The trail runs dry here," he answered.

"You sure? Because I thought tracking was one of your skills," she said skeptically. 

He stood up and splayed his hands. "Just give me a second. This is my world. I got it."

Graham began walking around searching for the tracks of the John Doe.

"Right. Sorry," Emma said as she put her hands on her hips. 

Mary-Margaret was looking around from where she stood. It had already gotten dark and the night life filled the surroundings with their noise. Leilani and Luna stood beside the two woman and offered their help. 

"What does he mean 'his world' isn't finding people your thing too," Mary-Margaret asked Emma. 

"Sure. Just .. people I find usually run to places like ... Vegas." 

Mary-Margaret gave a small noise in understanding. 

"Not a lot hid in the woods," Emma continued on.

"That's an interesting job. Finding people. How'd you get into it," she asked.

"Looking for people is just what I've done for," she shook her head before continuing, "as long as I can remember."

"What made you start? .. Your parents," Mary-Margaret asked. 

Emma looked at her in shock, not having known that the Teacher had known that she was an Orphan.

"Henry told me that you're.. You were from a similar situation to his own. Did you ever find them?"

"Depends who you ask," Emma answered cryptically. 

Leilani and Luna gave the two women some space since it seemed that it was a personal conversation but Lei was keeping her ear out to listen in. 

There was suddenly the crunch of feet and dirt slipping behind them and they turned around to see a young boy. 

"Henry!"

"Did you find him yet," he asked Mary-Margaret as he stopped in front of them. 

"No. Not yet. You.. shouldn't be here," Emma said to him. 

"I can help! I know where he's going."

"And where's that," Mary-Margaret asked the young boy.

"He's looking for you."

Mary-Margaret stared at Henry when he gave that answer in slight shock. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The group somehow found their way to the Toll bridge where water streamed along on top of a bed of rocks. They used their flashlights to scan around searching for their John Doe. Leilani was the one to first find him because of her good eyesight.

"He's over here," she called as she ran forward to quickly grab hold of the body that was face down in the water. 

She pushed him onto his back as the others ran forward to help drag him from the cold confines. Emma stayed back with Henry and Luna and pushed Henry into her stomach so he couldn't see what was happening. 

Leilani could feel the man's life slipping away due to her connection with Death. She couldn't interfere even if she wanted to. Lei watched on as Mary-Margaret began to administer CPR by compressing his chest. The magic intensified in the air as their lips met and the man began to sputter out the water.

He inhaled much needed oxygen. "You.. You saved me."


	7. Chapter 7

"I've gotta get you home, kid," Emma said after the EMT's had taken John Doe away.

"Actually, we can take him home," Leilani spoke up suddenly.

"You," Emma asked at the same time Henry asked 'You?'.

"Luna and I were invited for Dinner at six. Seeing how we got sidetracked and only have about ten minutes until we should be there and we're going to the same place it would save you the trouble," she said to Emma. 

"Uh, sure, I guess. I'll see ya around, Kid," she said before going with Mary-Margaret and Graham to head to the Hospital as well.

They walked with Henry to his house which wasn't so far from where they'd come out of the Forest. It was 6:07 p.m. when they knocked on the front door. 

Regina was still dressed in her business dress suit from earlier on in the day. 

"Henry! I thought you were in your bedroom!"

He hurriedly pushed past her and ran up the stairs. She turned back around with an angry look but realized it was her sister and friend instead of Emma. 

"You guys brought Henry back?"

"Seems he wanted to go on adventure into the woods too," Luna said as they both stepped inside. 

"We found some John Doe guy in the woods. We'd been walking a while when we came across Emma and two others tracking the man down. Henry showed up right before we found him face down in the water at the Toll Bridge. Luckily Mary-Margaret knows CPR because Luna and I would've been useless."

The marble floor clicked beneath Regina's heels as they stepped into a sitting room. 

"Is that so? I need to make a quick phone call."

She stepped out of the room and left Luna and Leilani alone. 

"What do you suppose that was about," Leilani asked of Luna.

"Plans needing to be set in motion," Luna answered as she looked around.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"David! David, is that you," a blonde woman came rushing through the Hospital to stand outside of John Doe's room.

"Excuse me, ma'am? Ma'am, you can't be in here, please."

"Oh, my God," she said as she laid eyes on John Doe, now named David.

"You can't be here right now," the same personnel spoke to her.

"David," she whispered as she continued staring at the man."You can't be here, ma'am. Will you wait over here for a second, okay?"

"Who is that," Emma wondered out loud.

"His wife," Graham answered her as he stepped back into the room. "Madam Mayor seemed to have found her."

"How convenient," Emma said as she saw how crestfallen Mary-Margaret was at the news.

"Apparently after you looked through those tapes it inspired her to go back over previous footage. Our John Doe seems to have been calling out for a 'Katheryn' in his sleep."

Mary-Margaret wasn't listening because she only had eyes for Katheryn and David greeting each other through the glass in the door to his room. She knew that she shouldn't have believed what Henry was saying about how John Doe had been her True Love but after everything that had happened it seemed almost true. 

Emma stepped back from Graham and walked up to Mary-Margaret. "Come on. Let's get ya out of here."

Mary-Margaret turned with slightly wet eyes and nodded with a painful smile before walking out of the Hospital with only one glance back. Her eyes connected with David's before she jerked her head forward again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sorry to keep you both waiting. While I was in the other room I made sure to let Henry know that he'll be joining us for dinner."

"Will you be introducing us? As in, mentioning that I'm your sister," Leilani asked curiously.

"If you want me to. Though I refuse to say you're my older sister," Regina added silkily.

"Well, he wouldn't believe that anyways.. unless you've told him about the curse."

"Of course not. No mentioning of magic either," she said pointedly at both her and Luna.

Leilani raised her hands in the air. "Fine, fine. I'll keep my 'freakishness' to a minimum. I can't say the same for Luna though. She's always like this."

Luna smiled brightly and took it as a compliment. "Thank you, Lei."

Regina snorted unladylike before clearing her throat and glaring at the both of them as though it were their fault. It probably was. Leilani grinned mischievously.

"You look like you have a wicked streak in you," she commented.

"Why, sister dearest, I have never!" Leilani dissolved into giggles as Regina merely raised an eyebrow at her sister's ridiculousness. 

"I'm sure."

She led them to the table where everything was already set for them. Henry soon joined them and they all had meaningless conversations. Henry seemed immediately intrigued and curious about Leilani after she'd been introduced as Regina's sister. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Next Day

Emma was sitting down with a cup of hot cocoa as she looked through the paper. Regina walked into Granny's and sat down in front of her.

"How was your walk with Henry," she asked Emma and at Emma's surprise answered, "That's right. I know everything, but relax. I don't mind." Regina smiled one of her many shark-like smiles as she regarded Emma in front of her.

"You don't," Emma asked surprised.

"No, because you no longer worry me, Ms. Swan. You see, I did a little digging into who you are, and what I found out was quite soothing. It all comes down to the number seven," Regina said as she crossed her legs beneath the table.

"Seven?"

"It's the number of addresses you've had in the last decade. Your longest stint anywhere was two years. Really, what did you enjoy so much about Tallahassee," Regina asked as she was genuinely kind of curious.

"If you were wondering, I did find a place here in town," Emma said rather smugly.

"I know, with Ms. Blanchard. How long is your lease." She paused before continuing, "Oh, wait. You don't have one. You see my point? In order for something to grow, Ms. Swan, it needs roots, and you don't have any. People don't change. They only fool themselves into believing they can.""You don't know me," Emma retorted as she begun to grow a bit angry at having someone dig up her personal life and shove it back in her face.

"No, I think I do. All I ask is, as you carry on your transient life, you think of Henry and what's best for him, perhaps consider a clean break, it's gonna happen anyway," Regina said as she began to stand. She paused before regarding the other woman. "Enjoy your cocoa."

Regina walked out of Granny's door, leaving the bell to chime at her exit. Emma went to stand and the Hot Cocoa spilled all over the front of her shirt.

"Ohh!"

Ruby, who had been behind the counter, ran forwards with a towel and a grimace.

"Really? Eesh," Ruby said as Emma took the towel from her hands."Do you've a laundroom I can use," Emma asked.

"Mm-hmm." Ruby pointed towards the back where the machine was.

Emma walked into the room and slammed open the washing machine as she pulled the shirt over her head and threw it inside. After dumping detergent into it and starting it up she grabbed a hanging shirt from a hanging wire and pulled it on.

"Oh, no no, no, no, no, no," a young woman cried out as she held pink sheets in her hands.

"You okay," Emma asked wearily.

"The sheets -- They're, uh.. they're pink," the young woman replied.

"You tried bleach?" The young woman moved the sheets aside to show her very pregnant belly. "Oh.""Last night I felt contractions, and -- the doctor said that the baby can come any day now. So..."

"That's great," Emma replied as she couldn't think of anything better to say in response.

"It's just that, um, when the -- when the baby comes no one thinks that I can do this. No one thinks I can do anything. Maybe they're right," the young woman said dejectedly as she stared down at the pink sheets."Screw them," Emma said with an edge of heat."What," the younger woman asked in surprise.

"Screw them. How old are you? I was 18," Emma said.

"When you-- when you had a kid?"

"Yeah. I know what it's like. Everyone loves to tell you what you can and can't do, especially with a kid, but ultimately, whatever you're considering doing, or giving up, the choice is yours," Emma finally gave her input on the matter. She had never really been given the choice to have Henry. Having been locked up when she gave birth put any plans aside. Emma had wanted to give him a better chance at a happier life.

"It's not exactly what you might think it is," the young woman said sadly.

"It never is. People are gonna tell you who you are your whole life. You just gotta punch back and say, 'No, this is who I am.' You want people to look at you differently? Make them. You want to change things, you're gonna have to go out there and change them yourself, because there are no fairy godmothers In this world."

With that, Emma turned to walk back into Granny's diner to get a second Cocoa to replace the disaster of the first while she waited for her shirt to get cleaned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leilani and Luna had gone to apply at the animal shelter since they hadn't anything better to do. Afterwards Luna went back to the room as Leilani proceeded to walk back to the Pawn Shop, hoping to get there before her Father closed for the day. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A lone woman walked on quiet feet as she made her way to the back entrance to the pawn shop. She knew what time Mr. Gold closed so she was in the clear. Grabbing hold of a brick she broke the window and reached inside to unlock the door before quickly rushing inside. Her search finally bore fruit when she grabbed a painting and it slid open to reveal a safe. 

It needed a key though and she searched around the vicinity for anything that would work. 

"Ashley? What are you doing," Mr. Gold spoke up from behind her which shocked her to turn around.

Ashley clenched her teeth in determination as she said defiantly, "Changing my life."

She pulled out a can of pepper spray and aimed it at Mr. Gold's face which made him rear back in pain, losing his grip on his cane. He stumbled backwards but lost his footing and fell forward which slammed his face onto the counter, knocking him unconscious. Ashley quickly ran forward and begun to rummage in his pockets and retrieved the keys before running back to the safe and grabbing what she'd been looking for and running out the back door that she came in from.

Leilani noticed the slightly ajar door as she walked up to the Pawn Shop and grew a bit worried since the sign said closed but her father hadn't locked up. She pushed open the door and stepped inside as quietly as she could and made sure the bell didn't chime with a bit of her magic.

Looking around she didn't see anyone standing around the dark shop but she continued stepping forward until her foot kicked something on the ground. There was a groan of pain from where her foot made impact and she stared down in shock.

"Dad?! Are you alright??" Leilani quickly fell to the ground and lifted her father's head into her lap.

"Pepper Spray in the eyes, dearie," he croaked out.

Leilani gathered her magic in her hands and set them over his eyes but she saw a gash on his forehead and went to also heal that. Rumpel grabbed hold of her hand before she could heal it.

"Not that, Little Flower. I need it to make my story more believable."

"Story?"

"I need to have someone go catch that thief and if there's nothing to show for the robbery it would seem as though I'm an evil git trying to apprehend a pregnant woman."

"A pregnant woman got the best of you?"

"I wasn't expecting it either," he told her confidently.

Leilani snorted in amusement.

"Well, I was coming by to see if you'd like for me to come over and cook you dinner tonight. I don't know whether to thank the fact that a thief came into the store or not because otherwise you wouldn't have been here and I'd have gone back to Granny's for the night."

"I'd love that, dearie."

Leilani smiled brightly before helping her father stand and handing him his cane. They left the store after he retrieved the keys from the safe and locked it up.


	8. Chapter 8

Regina stood in front of her mirror near the entrance of the house, putting on her lipstick before pursing her lips together and smiling.

"I know you think otherwise, but I don't enjoy these Saturday city council meetings. Sometimes they're just unavoidable," she spoke over her shoulder. "Now you know the rules?"

"Yes on homework, no on TV, and stay inside," Henry answered dutifully.

"Good boy. Under no circumstance do you leave this house," she told him sternly."You mean don't see my mom," he retorted petulantly."She's not your mother. She's just a woman passing through. Now do as I say, or there will be consequences. I'll be back at 5:00 sharp."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma sat on the floor inside Mary-Margaret's apartment, surrounded by a couple of boxes.

"I'm so glad my stuff is here," she said as she opened one of them. Mary-Margaret walked over with a plate of breakfast and handed it to her. "Oh, thanks."

"So that's all your stuff," Mary-Margaret questioned as she set down her own plate on the table.

"What do you mean?"

"Is the rest in storage," Mary-Margaret asked as she puttered around the kitchen.

"No, this is all of it. I'm not sentimental."

"Well, it must make things easier when you have to move," she said just as there was knocking on her door.

Mary-Margaret walked over to the door in slight confusion and opened it up to reveal Mr. Gold on the other side giving her a slight smirk revealing one of his gold teeth.

"Ms. Blanchard, is Ms. Swan here," he asked her as he realized Mary-Margaret was just too surprised to see him to say a greeting.

Emma stood up from her boxes and walked over to the door and simply said 'Hi'.

"My name is Mr. Gold. We met briefly on your arrival."

"I remember.""Good. I have a proposition for you, Ms. Swan. I, uh, I need your help. I'm looking for someone," he told her as he continued to stand in front of their door."Really," Emma said as she crossed her arms and waited for him to continue but Mr. Gold looked over at Mary-Margaret.

"Um You know what? I'm gonna go jump I-in the bath," Mary-Margaret said rather quickly before scurrying away from the both of them.

"I have a photo. Her name is Ashley Boyd, and she's taken something quite valuable of mine," he began again after Mary-Margaret left. He handed Emma a picture of Ashley. "So why don't you just call the police?"

"Because, she's a confused young woman. She's pregnant, alone, and scared. I don't want to ruin this young girl's life, but I just want my property returned," he replied to her as he leaned against his cane. Rumpel was a really good deceiver and sounded genuinely concerned about the woman who had just attacked him the previous night.

"And what is it?"

"Well, one of the advantages of you not being the police Is discretion. Let's just say it's a precious object and leave it at that."

"When did you see her last?"

"Last night. That's-- that's how I got this," he said before pushing aside his bangs to show the wound left on his face. "It's so unlike her. She was quite wound up, rambling on and on about changing her life. I have no idea what got into her. Ms. Swan, please just help me find her. My only other choice is the police, and I don't think anyone wants to see That baby born in jail, now do they?"

Emma felt guilty because after she saw the picture of Ashley and hearing what Mr. Gold said she kind of felt it was a bit of her fault that she'd attacked the man.

"No, of course not."

"So you'll help me then?"

"I'll help her," was her response.

"Grand."

The door opened behind them and in walked Henry with a backpack over his shoulder. He hadn't seen them yet as he began to speak.

"Hey, Emma, I was thinking we--" his voice cut off when he looked up and saw Mr. Gold.

"Hey, Henry. How are you," Mr. Gold asked with a smile.

"Okay."

"Good. Give my regards to your mother, and, um, good luck, Ms. Swan," Mr. Gold said as he began to walk out of Mary-Margaret's apartment and shutting the door behind him.

Henry quickly turned to Emma. "Do you know who that is?"

"Yeah, of course I do," Emma said immediately.

"Really? Who? 'cause I'm still trying to figure it out," Henry asked with a bit of confusion.

"Oh, I meant in reality," Emma said.

"Is that all you brought," Henry asked her as he looked at the few boxes littering the floor.

"Henry, what are you doing here," Emma finally asked as she gave up on unpacking in favor of grabbing her jacket and boots to get ready to leave.

"My mom's gone till 5:00. I thought we could hang out."

"Aw, kid, I wish I could, but there's something I gotta do."

She walked out of the apartment building and was walking towards her car as Henry kept pace with her.

"Please let me help," he begged as he looked up at her.

"No, no. It could be dangerous," she denied him as she continued towards her car."The pregnant maid is dangerous?"

"She assaulted Mr. Gold," Emma said in exasperation at Henry.

"Cool," was his response.

"This isn't a game. She's desperate."

"How do you know," he questioned.

"Because I know," was her answer.

"Well, then let's find her," Henry said with great conviction in his voice.

"Oh, no, no, no. There is no 'let's'. You cannot come with me," Emma immediately denied his involvement in her current task.

"Then I'll look for her myself," he said stubbornly.

"Then I'll find you, and I'll bring you back.""Then you wouldn't be helping the maid."

"I am just trying to be responsible here," she said a bit desperately as they reached her car.

"And I'm just trying to spend time with you," Henry said back.

"Oh, that is really not fair," she said a bit sadly before opening her car door and getting inside. Henry got in on the passenger side.

"So the maid-- what's her story?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leilani was going to go in to the animal shelter with Luna today but she'd had an unexpected guest. Luna went on ahead as Leilani stared at the owl that had somehow found her inside this town that was cursed.

"Well, hello there. How'd you find me," she asked the bird.

The owl hooted indignantly as though Leilani had just offended it immensely.

"Okay, fine. I don't have any treats though so you'll have to make do with hunting for yourself."

She undid the letters from it's leg and it flapped it's wings in her general direction which meant she got slapped with a wing. It left immediately after.

Leilani looked down at the first letter and groaned. It looked like she'd gotten a letter from the Ministry. What in the world could they possibly want from her now?

She opened it up and quickly read through it before crumpling it up. 

"Useless, the lot of them." 

Leilani looked at the second letter and didn't know whether she wanted to burn it on simple principle or open it. She sighed before sliding a fingernail under the flap and ripping it open.

Hey Lani,

Me and Hermoine were just talking about you. Wondering if you wanted to go out sometime? I'm runnin' for Minister! They think I got a chance. Hope to hear from ya soon.

Ron

He's lost his damn mind. Out of nowhere he expects them to still be friends? After their big blow out and there wasn't even an apology anywhere in that letter. It was obvious that he thought she was still in Britain. By the way he wrote about running for Minister right after asking her to go out with him and Hermoine was just proof he wanted to use her damned fame for his own use. 

She quickly ripped that letter up and caught it on fire before dusting her hands free. 

"I wonder if Regina is busy. Maybe we can talk about magic. I know how much my magic has changed so maybe she would have some insight."

Leilani looked at the clock and saw that it was about 11. She picked up her cellphone and dialed the Mayor's office. 

"Mayor Mills," came the immediate answer from across the line.

"Hey Gina. It's Leilani. I was wondering if you were busy? I wanted to talk magic with someone."

"You're just bored."

"Well, that too but I honestly wanted to spend time with you," Leilani said petulantly.

Regina sighed over the phone. "I can't today. I've got council meetings all day. We can do that tomorrow though?"

"Okay! It's a date!"

"It is not a date. It's a deal," Regina said.

"Of course it's not an actual date. That'd be gross, you're my sister. Well, I'll see you tomorrow. Have fun with those Council Meetings."

"Oh yes. Joy."

Regina hung up before Leilani could respond back with something else that was sarcastic. She scrolled through her numbers until she reached her father's number and called him.

"Good afternoon, Little Flower. What can I do for ya."

"Hey, Daddy. I was wondering if you were to busy to talk about magic. I really want to know the difference between my magic from before and now."

"Not busy. I'd never be busy enough to reject an offer to spend time with you. Come on over. I'm at the shop."

"Of course you are," she said on a grumble.

"I'll see you when you get here," he said with a chuckle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leilani stepped through the Pawn Shop's door and gave her father a bright smile when he saw her step through. Today she was wearing a black tank top, one of the only ones she owned, with her green dragon hide pants and knee high black lace up boots. She'd left her hair to fall down in gentle waves to her lower back. Her lips were naturally red so she didn't need to put lipstick on. She'd merely added a bit of eyeliner and mascara to bring out the bright yellow green of her eyes.

"You look beautiful, Little Flower. I see you have a penchant for leather pants like your father," he said with a chuckle.

"You wear leather pants," she asked with a loud laugh at the image of her business suit wearing father wearing leather pants.

"Well, back in the other Realm my skin was scaled like yours but instead of the clear color, mine was gold. Leather pants went wonderfully with gold scales."

"I can only imagine," she snickered. 

Rumpelstiltskin gazed happily at his daughter before gesturing her to follow him to the back of the pawn shop. He had a hidden room that he kept his magic books inside of. Leilani watched with rapt attention as he opened it up and pulled free a book. 

"Take this and read through it. However, be cautious. There's a lot of dark magic within."

"I won't be casting any curses anytime soon, Daddy. Rest assured I just wanted to see what the differences were."

"I can only tell you what I know from personal experience of having magic from the Enchanted Forest. I haven't had magic from this land like you have. My magic ran off of emotions and intent. Those emotions usually came from the people who made deals with me but when I taught your sisters they used rage and anger to fuel their magic."

"My magic doesn't really work like that. It comes to me really easily. I've barely to think of what I want and it's there," she said before conjuring blue flames on her hand. She made the flame dance along her flesh before curling her hand into a fist and extinguishing it.

"It may be something to do with your connection with Death. All magic comes with a price but I wonder if yours doesn't because of who you are."

Correct Dark One. My Missstresss merely payss the pricee by collecting soulss unconcioussly. If you need to think of a pricee jusst think that thosse ssoulss pay the pricee in her sstead.

Death hadn't even appeared but the voice echoed around the confines of the room giving both occupants goosebumps. Rumpel collected himself first even as Leilani had wide eyes.

"Well, it seems you needn't fear repercussions for your magic then."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If I knew how to work Archive this would look so much better. At least on Wattpad I know how to work the bold, italics, and underline function. 😐 My apologies, Dear Readers.

After Leilani left she decided to go into the woods and figure out her magic some more. Maybe even call Death to her.. actually, to figure it out better she'd need to leave town to talk to her own Death. She'd found out though, that she couldn't apparate outside the town due to the curse. So she decided to just ask this Death some questions. However, due to the surrounding changes that take place when Death appears, she needed to go deep into the forest to accomplish this. 

Beneath the shade of the trees seemed like a completely separate world. Leilani listened to the birds chirping and the sound of water running in the distance. It was almost ethereal in quality which seemed to put her more at ease. She'd been living for others for so long that finally living for herself feels freeing. Her family doesn't expect anything from her or for her to be a certain way. If anything, they would be the most understanding of her brash attitude and her newly acquired title. 

"Death," she called into the serenity of the forest surrounding her.

Yess Misstress, you called?

"What does being your Mistress actually mean?"

You've officially taken on the title of Mistress to all Death's across Universes and Worlds. You're the shuttle that passes between the living and those that have gone. In essence you're the in-between. Soon you will need to learn to block the Death's of others who pass through you. Otherwise when your Death has had enough of helping you it'll be like a wave crashing into you. You may lose your mind. Those Occlumency lessons should be put to good use or ask your Father to teach you how to block the mind to compartmentalize. Or, the easiest route, would be to rip your heart out and feel nothing at all. Death has no heart, no hate, no love, we just are. As the Mistress you can choose to remain our compassionate counterpart or join with us. The choice is yourss.

Death began to fade from the surroundings and the wildlife seemed to breathe once again. Leilani sat down on the ground and began to meditate. She hadn't done this since she'd had nothing better to do while on the run hunting down Hocrux's. Now, she centered herself and allowed herself to fall into her mind. She'd learned that this form of art was different to learn depending on each person and the way that Snape had taught her was merely his way of learning, not hers.

She'd never quite gotten over the fact that he'd seen her life at the Dursley's and yet she was still taken back to that hell every year. Had no one cared for her and not what she was supposedly fated to be? Aside from Luna, she wasn't all together sure. 

Her Mindscape turned out to be the Potter Manor that she had been staying in before her and Luna's trip to Storybrooke. There was something new and dark though that had been added to her space. It was a hallway that she knew didn't exist in the real world at Potter Manor. She quickly padded forward on bare feet but stopped just out of the darkened space. 

It was cold. Her breath seemed to fog in front of her as she stared into what looked to be the abyss. She took a deep breath before taking one step forward and pausing. The shadows seem to be alive and where her foot touched it cleared away but the shadows had begun to flow up her legs sinking into her skin. They began to etch words in an ancient language across her flesh. If she were to look at her arms, legs, neck, and chest, she would see they appeared more like chains than random ink. She was chained to the living as she was now chained to Death. There would never be rejoining her lost loved ones. She was the overseer. The Bridge. Leilani was the door into the afterlife. 

All of this was felt through her entire being. She felt thousands upon thousands of souls flowing into her body, giving her power but also leaving echoes of their deaths upon her mind. She quickly tumbled out of that hallway and fell to the floor of her mindscape as she stared in horror back at the hallway. 

Death seemed to form in front of her, blocking sight of the hall.

Mistresss, you're not ready to take up full control of all your abilities. It's too late for me to block out all the echoes but you shouldn't stay within long. 

Leilani broke free of her meditative state and stumbled across the forest floor. There was only one thing she really wanted and that was her family. She knew that Regina was closest so she stumbled sort of drunkenly into town and made her way to the Mayor's Office. People gossiped about her but she kept her eyes to the ground and gritted her teeth as she tried to breathe through the pain being inflicted on her. 

She finally got to the Mayor's Office and climbed the stairs to Regina's room and slammed through the door.

"What the hell do you think you're doing," Regina said as she took in what looked like her sister being under the influence.

"Gina, it's really painful," Leilani said with a slight pout as she looked up at Regina. 

Regina gasped as she stared at her sisters eyes. They'd gone completely black, even the sclera. Her eyes held universes within them. They were so distracting that she hadn't noticed the tears streaming down her sister's face at first.

"Oh my god. What's wrong," she hurried around her desk and approached Leilani. 

There was a really dark magic coming out of her sister and she wasn't sure what she could do to help. She didn't have her magic here. Well, she did have a little bit left that she'd been saving for a rainy day but it looked like Leilani needed her more. She reached out with gritted teeth and put a sort of magical block on the dark energy swamping Leilani.

Lei slumped forward into Regina's arms as she was dragged to the couch. 

"Gonna tell me what's going on? What were you doing?"

"Forgot," Leilani mumbled as she lent her head backwards and stared at the ceiling. 

Regina was just glad that her sister's eyes had gone back to their original color.

"Forgot what? That you have demonic eyes or that you were leaking black magic everywhere?"

"Demonic eyes? Whatever. No, I forgot that I hadn't told you that I'm the supposed 'Mistress of Death'. I went into the woods to communicate with my magic and talk to Death. During a normal meditation session I ended up tapping into my 'Death' magic and this is what happened. Death explained it that I'm the door to the afterlife. So, in essence, I will feel every single souls passing and their deaths were causing me pain. Also, I'm immortal. No happy ending for me," she grumbled the last bit as she turned her head to look at her stunned sister. 

"I'm just going to forget all about this whole 'Mistress of Death' business for now and answer your earlier question instead. Yes, your eyes went completely black. Ergo, Demonic eyes."

"Huh... That's never happened before. Maybe I should ask Daddy about it."

"Ugh, you're already calling him 'daddy'?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "I call you 'Gina."

"If I were to ask you not to you'd probably find an even worse nickname to call me by," Regina said grudgingly. 

Leilani smiled a bit tiredly back at her. Regina was worried about her sister's health and when she noticed her falling asleep she allowed her to spread out on the couch before she went to make a phone call to 'Mr. Gold'.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma and Henry were inside the Hospital after finding Ashley's broke down car right beside the sign for Storybrooke and that she'd gone into labor. They were now waiting for the Doctor to give them the good news.

"You know, Emma, you're different," Henry said from where he was sitting down as Emma walked back in forth in front of him.

"What's that," she asked a bit distractedly.

"You're the only one who can do it."

"Break the curse? Yes, I know. You keep telling me that," she said in exasperation."No. Leave. You're the only one who can leave Storybrooke," he told her."You left and came and found me in Boston," she pointed out.

"But I came back. I'm 10. I had no choice, but if anyone else tried to go, bad things would happen," he told her by way of explanation.

"Anyone except me?"

"You're the savior. You can do whatever you want. You can go." Henry was telling Emma that she could leave them at anytime but they were all stuck within the town.

A Doctor walked up to Emma at that moment, cutting off their conversation. "Ms. Swan, the baby is a healthy 6-pound girl, and the mother is doing fine.""What lovely news," came a voice from behind both Emma and Henry. They turned to see Mr. Gold. "Excellent work, Ms. Swan. Thank you for bringing me my merchandise."

Mr. Gold walked over to the coffee machine and waited patiently for it to work. After tapping it a few times with his cane it began pouring.

"Well, well. Must be my lucky day. Care for a cup, Ms. Swan," he asked Emma cordially.

"A baby? That's your merchandise? Why didn't you tell me," she asked horrified.

"Well, because at the time, you didn't need to know."

"Really? Or you thought I wouldn't take the job," Emma contradicted.

"On the contrary, I thought it would be more effective if you found out yourself. After seeing Ashley's hard life, I thought it would make sense to you. I mean, if anyone could understand the reasons behind giving up a baby, I assumed it would be you."

Emma glared at Mr. Gold as she crossed her arms across her chest. "You're not getting that kid."

"Actually, we have an agreement, and my agreements are always honored. If not, I'm going to have to involve the police, and that baby is going to end up in the system, and that would be a pity. You didn't enjoy your time in the system, did you, Emma?"

Emma stepped forward as she said, "That's not gonna happen."

"I like your confidence. Charming, but all I have to do is press charges. She did, after all, break into my shop, he said reasonably as he took a sip of his coffee."Let me guess. To steal a contract," she said monotone as if it weren't obvious why a pregnant woman would be desperate enough to break into Mr. Gold's shop."Who knows what she was after?"

"You know, no jury in the world will put a woman in jail whose only reason for breaking and entering was to keep her child. I'm willing to roll the dice that contract doesn't stand up. Are you? Not to mention what might come out about you in the process. Somehow I suspect there is more to you Than a simple pawnbroker. You really want to start that fight?"

Mr. Gold smirked as he stared at Emma before finally smiling genuinely. "I like you, Ms. Swan. You're not afraid of me, and that's either cocky or presumptuous. Either way, I'd rather have you on my side."

"So she can keep the baby," she asked with a bit of relief to her tone.

"Not just yet. There's still the matter of my agreement with Ms. Boyd."

"Tear it up."

"That's not what I do. You see, contracts, deals-- Well, they're the very foundation of all civilized existence, so I put it to you now. If you want Ashley to have that baby, are you willing to make a deal with me," he leered at the end which made Emma a bit weary of the whole thing.

"What do you want?"

"Oh, I don't know just yet," he answered with a smirk. "You'll owe me a favor."

"Deal," Emma answered as she turned around to head back into the room.

Rumpelstiltskin paused near the entrance to the Hospital as he pulled out his cellphone and accepted the call.

"What can I do for you, Regina," he asked silkily.

"I know you remember who you are, which we will be discussing later, but that's not why I'm calling you. Leilani came to my office and passed out on the couch. She walked in covered in black magic and her eyes were completely black. I've never felt anything like it. I used the last bit of magic to help right her though. Apparently she will begin feeling the deaths of every soul that passes through her. She needs to learn how to block it out somehow. I fear the options she may have been given to stop 'feeling' them. Can you come and get her?"

"I'm on my way."


	10. Chapter 10

Rumpelstiltskin walked with Leilani into his pink house, her giving a rude comment on his color choice along the way.

"I've already told you that it was Regina who had made it pink with the curse. No fault of my own, dearie."

"You've still kept it pink though," she commented as she stumbled a bit forward and flopped down on his couch. He sat in the chair across from her as he begun to start up a fire.

"And have you informed your Luna about your whereabouts?"

"She'll know whether I tell her or not. I wouldn't be surprised if she shows up after she leaves the animal shelter."

"Now." He paused as he shifted back in the chair to regard his one and only daughter. "Do you want to explain to me what happened?"

"Death told me that I have more powers than I have access to at the moment. My original Death is apparently blocking the more.. 'difficult' powers from me so that I don't go insane."

"That sounds like a good thing," he commented.

"Yes, it is a good thing. Seeing as the reason why Regina had to help me in the first place is because I accidentally stumbled upon those certain abilities while meditating in the forest. Thankfully only Regina saw my physical changes. I know she didn't comment on the strange chains of ancient words tattooed across the exposed skin she could see but that might've been an issue with the rest of the town if they noticed."

"Chains? You have chains on your body?"

"Don't we both, Daddy? I know you don't talk about the price you paid for being the Dark One but I imagine that we both have our own forms of chains to these titles. Mine just become physical form when I become the Gateway.. They may say I'm the Mistress of Death but I'm also the anchor to the in-between or if you like 'purgatory'. I can feel all the souls, Daddy," she whispered the last in complete horror. 

Rumpelstiltskin was beginning to understand how truly horrifying of a 'gift' his daughter was given. Although he was happy that he'd never have to fear one of his enemies killing her, as a father it was disheartening to hear your child in any form of pain and this- this was something that was hurting his girl. He wouldn't change her ever, not even the title of Mistress of Death that she was given, however he would've taken on her pain if it would keep her smiling. 

"It displeases me that you have actual chains that manifest on your body, Little Flower. If I could, I would take away your pain. However, since I can't we'll just need to teach you ways to block out the emotions that come with the souls. You need to learn how to displace the sensation of yourself in comparison to everything else. In a sense this is a form of empathy you wield.. What you described about the hallway where Death was guarding your magicks that deal in it's 'department', my only guess is that once it decides to stop 'meddling' with your health that hallway will disappear and your entire space will be the metaphorical 'train station' for souls to pass into. You need to learn to form your own hallway and set away your Death magic inside of it. Try imagining a glass wall that separates you from it, one where you could take what you need but block everything useless behind."

"Next time I meditate I'll be sure to try that. I'll let you know the results and how far I've gotten with it."

Rumpel sighed as he stared at his daughter. He wished he could've raised her and taught her about magic himself. He could tell how much she actually loved magic, unlike his Baelfire. Baelfire. He'd been thinking more on what Laelani said about searching for him but he didn't know if he wanted to allow her to leave out of reach and fear her not coming back as well or to spend the most time with her that he could manage.

He sighed again before saying, "I've been thinking of your brother. I was wondering if you'd be willing to maybe go find him. Of course, I expect phone calls every day."

"I'd be happy to go find Neal," she answered.

"Neal?"

"Oh, I meant Baelfire. It's just that he changed his name I guess, since being here."

Rumpelstiltskin nodded in slight understanding. Baelfire was an unusual name for the people of this world so he wasn't awfully surprised that he changed his name. At this time the doorbell rang and Laelani jumped up.

"I'll get it!"

It wasn't even like he could beat her to the door if he tried so he continued to sit in the armchair as he waited for her to return. She came back into the room with a skipping Luna beside her. 

"I brought my pajamas," Luna said airily.

"Uh, so I guess we're staying the night," Laelani said but it sounded more like a question to Rumpelstiltskin. 

"That's fine, Dearie. You and Luna can take the two guest rooms."

"Thanks, Daddy," she said before walking forward to lean down and kiss his cheek before walking with Luna towards the guestrooms. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was early morning when the earth seemed to shake within Storybrooke, Maine. Everyone quickly made their way to the origin of the shaking. 

"Everyone step back, please," the Mayor called out as she stood in front of a large hole with piled rocks and the opening to a mine. "Is that a crater," someone in the crowd asked.

"No, there were tunnels, uh, old mines," another person answered.

"Be careful. Step back," some volunteer fire department workers said as they tried to block off the area to prevent anyone from getting injured. "Something collapsed.""Sheriff, set up a police perimeter," Regina said as Graham pulled up to the scene in his cop car. Emma stepped out of the passenger seat in her red jacket and blue jeans with a little badge for 'Deputy' hooked on a belt buckle. "Marco, why don't you help with the fire department? Ms. Swan, this is now official town business. You're free to go.""Well, actually, I work for the town now," Emma explained why she wasn't leaving.

"She's my new deputy," Graham spoke up to back Emma's claim.

"They say the mayor's always last to know," Regina mumbled sarcastically."It's in my budget," Graham tried to give an excuse."Indeed," Regina answered before asking, "Deputy, why don't you make yourself useful and help with crowd control?" After assuring herself that Emma would do as asked she turned to the crowd to speak up again. "People of Storybrooke, don't be alarmed. We've always known this area was honeycombed with old mining tunnels, but fear not. I'm going to undertake a project to make this area safe, to rehabilitate it into city use. We will bulldoze it, collapse it, pave it.""Pave it? What if there's something down there," Henry called out all of a sudden.

"Henry, what are you doing here," Regina asked as she made her way to her son.

"What's down there?"

"Nothing. Now step back. In fact, everyone, please, please step back," she said as the crowd began to back up and than said 'Thank you'.

"Let's go, boys," Regina said to the workers in the area.

"What was that," Henry asked Regina.

"Henry, enough. Listen, this is a safety issue. Wait in the car. Deputy Swan, sheriff, cordon off the area."

Henry quickly made his way to the side with Emma before calling out to his Psychiatrist.

"Hey, Archie! Over here," he called out before waiting until he moved towards him and lowering his voice. "This requires all of operation Cobra--both of you."

"I didn't realize I was in operation Cobra," Archie said with a slightly raised eyebrow that showed over his glasses.

"Of course you are. You know everything. We can't let her do this. What if there's something down there," Henry asked aghast at the very notion of letting some kind of proof be demolished by Regina.

"They're just some old tunnels," Emma said.

"That just happen to collapse right after you get here? You're changing things. You're weakening the curse!""That's not what's happening," Emma immediately denied in slight exasperation."Yes, it is! Did you do anything different today? 'Cause something made this happen."

Emma recalled that she had just accepted the job to be a Police Deputy from Graham and taken on that roll this morning.. right before the ground shook. Regina walked towards there group with an angered look on her face.

"Henry, I told you to wait in the car. Deputy, do your job. Dr. Hopper, a word, please," she said as she walked away and had the Doctor follow behind her. She turned around to face him with anger clear in every word she said. "Okay, we're done with this.""Uh, excuse me," he asked in confusion on what she was 'done' with.

"My son. We need a new treatment plan. Everything I do he thinks is part of some horrible plot. I can't cover up a safety hazard without him thinking I'm hiding something. How am I hiding something terrible in an old mine? How is any of this logical to him," she asked as she grew more and more irritated.

"He's got an amazing imagination," Archie said with a small smile by way of explanation.

"Yes, that you let run rampant.""Well, I think it would be wrong to rip away the world he's constructed. I'd rather use it to try and get--"

Archie was cut off in the middle of his sentence by Regina.

"Sometimes I think you've forgotten," she paused before continuing. "You work for me. You're an employee, and I can fire you. This is my town. You will lose your office, lose your house. I can cut you down to size until you're a tiny, shrunken little creature, and this will be the only roof over your damn head."

"What would you have me do," he asked dejectedly.

"You take that delusion out of my son's head, and you crush it," she spat out before turning to leave.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What is it Luna? Are you tired from working with the animals," Leilani asked as they finally got off their shift and made it into their room.

Her Father told her that it would be a couple more days for an apartment to be ready for them.

"No. But you should go down to the mines. Someone will need you," Luna said airily as she shoved Leilani towards the bedroom door.

"Who will?"

"Just go."

Leilani sighed before grabbed a jacket and walking out the door. She decided to use the rental to drive to the mines that she had heard about this morning. It was still light outside thankfully, otherwise this whole 'searching the mines' thing would've been more difficult.

When she arrived the place was blocked off with caution tape but no one was here. She got out of the car and began to make her way down into the crater and towards the mine shaft. As she got closer she noticed a candy bar near the entrance and knew that a child was down here. No way would an adult pack candy bars to go into the mines. Leilani sighed at the fact that children don't seem to have a care for their lives these days. .. She wasn't really one to talk though, with all the 'adventures' she had gone on as a kid herself.

Leilani entered the mines by ducking under some wooden beams. Inside was rather dark so she did a silent wandless lumos that brightened the path she walked. There was no use in her calling out to whomever was down here, even had she known which child it was. It was idiotic to yell within something that could collapse at any time.

As she got deeper she picked up the sound of someone moving around the path on the left. She got closer and immediately recognized her sister's child.

"Henry??"

Henry spun around with his flashlight and she quickly let go of her lumos so he wouldn't noticed the magic she had.

"Aunt Leilani? What are you doing down here," he asked.

Leilani noticed how puffed up his eyes were so she walked forward and knelt on the ground. "Why were you crying? And what are you doing down here? It's really dangerous Henry. The tunnels could collapse at any time."

"I was searching for proof."

"Proof of what?"

"Proof that the town is under a curse. Archie told me I had a psy-psy-psychosis! He thinks I'm crazy and that I should be locked up."

"Hmm. Well, I'll be having a talk with this Archie. But for now, please come out of here with me. It would be horrible if you were to get injured."

"NO! I HAVE TO FIND PROOF THAT IT'S TRUE!"

His yell echoed the confines of the tunnels and the walls seemed to shake. Leilani cursed as she heard rocks tumbling back the way she had come. A few stray rocks tumbled down from the ceiling so she grabbed hold of Henry and covered his body with her own. Once the rocks stopped she unfurled from on top of him and dusted herself and Henry off.

"Let's go see what just happened. I think we're now stuck down here," she said as she began to hold his hand and walk back the path they had come.

He stayed quiet until they arrived at a pile of rocks that were blocking their path.

"I'm sorry, Aunt 'Lani. I just wanted everyone to believe me. I'm not crazy!"

Leilani had a decision to make but first she pulled out her phone.

"Hold on Henry. Stay right here and don't move. I'll be right back. I'm going to walk around until I get a signal."

"Okay."

She didn't really need to walk around but she needed to be a distance away so that he didn't hear her conversation with her sister. Her sister picked up on the first ring surprisingly.

"I can't talk right now, Leilani. My son is missing."

"About that," she said before pausing and then surging on ahead, "We're kind of stuck down in the mines. Luna told me to go to the mines and I walked around until I stumbled across him. I asked him to leave with me but he refused until he could find proof. Needless to say, his refusal caused the opening to be blocked. I can get us out of here with magic but I wanted to know whether you will talk to him about it or if we're going to have to make him forget."

"I-"

Leilani cut her off, "Let me just say this, Gina. Your son knows the truth but doesn't have proof. The more you make him feel like he's crazy, the more he'll push you away. I know it's not my place to tell you how to handle your son but from personal experience once he finds out that a person he loved had been actively lying to him.. that love will turn to hate and hurt. It would be better to just tell him now. It's not like anyone believes him anyways."

"I'll... think about it on your way here. Just bring my son home safely."

"Okay. I love you, sister dearest. I only want what's best for you and Henry."

Leilani hung up the phone before her sister could say anything else. She walked back to where she'd left Henry.

Kneeling down in front of Henry, she gave him a bright smile. "Hey, love. I'm going to show you something really amazing. It'll be our little secret, okay?"

"Okay," he said as he nodded his head.

Leilani lifted a hand and allowed her magic to conjure butterflies made out of her lumos. They fluttered around the both of them.

"Magic! You can do magic!"

"Yes, Henry. I can do magic. I can also use it to get us out of here. Will that be okay?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay," she said as she stood back up. "Hold on to me."

Henry wrapped both arms around her waist and stared up at her which made her chuckle before she wrapped her arms around him too. She closed her eyes and thought of her Father's house. Purple smoke wrapped around them before they disappeared.


	11. Chapter 11

Regina paced the floor of her home as she waited for her sister to arrive with Henry. She wasn't sure what to do but she understood what Leilani was saying. Cora had often lied to Regina and along the way her love for her mother had turned to hate. Her mother had always thought she was doing what was best for Regina and just because a mother thinks they're doing the best doesn't mean that it is. Was Leilani right?

A sound drew her attention to the entrance hall and she saw a cloud of purple smoke. It immediately cleared and gave way to her son and sister holding onto one another. 

Henry looked around with wide eyes and a large grin. "That was awesome, Aunt 'Lani!"

Regina could see the joy on her son's dirty face as he beamed up at her sister. 

"Don't I know it," Leilani responded with a kind smile. 

Leilani looked up and met the eyes of Regina and seemed to give her that look. The look that says 'You would be best served telling the truth than covering this up'. Henry turned around to see what Leilani was looking at and seemed to hesitate. Regina sighed. 

"I guess it's about time that I told you the truth, Henry."

She gestured for Henry to follow her into the sitting room. Leilani followed behind the both of them at a sedate pace with her arms crossed across her chest. She sat down next to Henry as Regina took up the seat across from them. 

Regina ran a hand through her hair as she stared into the fireplace to collect herself. 

"I know that you're probably angry and I wouldn't blame you. Everything you said was the truth. I am the 'Evil Queen'," she added the last bit with a self-deprecating voice. "I just wanted my happily ever after with my son. It seems that everything is falling apart though or not going the way I'd originally planned. There are so many things that I've done in the past that I'm not too proud of but I want you to know that I do love you, Henry."

Regina had glassy eyes from unshed tears as she stared at her son in hope of him understanding.

"I get that you're the Evil Queen but who's Aunt 'Lani," Henry asked as he turned to stare at Leilani. 

"I'm her sister," Leilani answered before Regina could. "I'm not in your book though. I, myself, am unsure of the true story but somehow I was sent to this land as a baby. I only recently found out that I had living relatives and that that included a father and mother."

"I have grandparents?! So you were sent here like my mom, Emma."

Regina looked like she wanted to protest the 'my mom' part but pursed her lips instead. 

"Well, I don't know about your grandfather. Regina and I are half-sisters through our mother. It seems that our mother isn't in this world though. My Father lives in Storybrooke though."

"Who's your father?"

She could see how excited Henry was at the prospect of her being a part of his book even if indirectly.

"You'd know him as Mr. Gold."

"Do you know who he is," he asked hurriedly.

"Of course, I do."

"Who is he? I still haven't figured that one out," he said a bit exasperated. 

"Why, Rumpelstiltskin of course."

"I knew he had to be a villain!"

Leilani rolled her eyes. "Not everything is as black and white as you make it out to be Henry. Have you ever wondered why people do bad things sometimes? Have you ever thought about the fact that maybe the reason the 'gallant hero' was trying to slay the dragon wasn't because of a necessarily good reason like 'trying to protect a village' but instead perhaps simply for showcasing his 'bravery'. Sometimes people you perceive as villains have a reason for their actions and sometimes those actions may be a bit impulsive but usually it's out of anger."

Henry seemed to mull that over as he sat in silence. Leilani looked over to Regina and caught her sister sending a silent 'thank you'. She nodded her head before standing up.

"Alright. I should be heading back. I left Luna back at the room after she told me that I'd be needed at the mines. She's rather intuitive. I'll leave you here to discuss any questions you have. Goodnight, Henry. See you later, Gina."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Since Regina is basically trying to change for both Henry and Leilani a lot of the events that happened haven't or aren't going to happen. Like for instance, Graham dying. I feel like Leilani kind of gave her an upheaval on life and having a f***-buddy isn't really on the agenda. So, she will be paying more attention to Henry what with him now being in on the truth. Emma still doesn't fully believe Henry's story about the curse even though he tells her about Leilani's magic et c. I really liked Graham so that's another reason I didn't want to kill him. Plus I could really see Ruby with Graham so there's that. I'm still unsure who to pair Luna up with. Although honestly I abhor Belle/Rumpel. Belle never truly understood the type of person Rumpel was and at this point I can't think of who to pair him with. Sorry for the random Author's Note in the middle but I needed to let the Readers know before proceeding.)

Weeks passed and Leilani and Luna had finally moved into a house that her father surprised her with. They'd only been looking for an apartment but instead got a whole house. It was a three bedroom space which she added further room to with the help of Luna with the expansion charms. They couldn't have House Elves here because the land was cursed without magic. Luna seemed to be alright with that though. Leilani set up wards around the house to keep out intruders and deter muggles from entering. 

Many interesting things had happened in the town lately. Although Luna and her have been keeping busy with the animal shelter the gossip spreads rather fast. Plus, she sort of had an in with Regina being the Mayor. Any news of importance was always relayed to her from eiither her sister or her father. 

One thing of importance was that Graham had gotten his memories back and after placing him under a spell where he couldn't talk about it, Regina returned his heart to him. Of course she'd only done this to show Henry that she was trying to be a better person. Graham mostly steered clear of both Regina and Leilani since then but he didn't try to outright attack them or anything. He was however now dating Emma. Although, it seemed like they would make better friends than a relationship.

Emma and Graham had apparently found twins living in an abandoned building and ended up reuniting them with their father in these past weeks which was another eventful occasion. Although from what Leilani had heard, the father hadn't wanted to take them at first. Another strange thing was that another stranger rode into town who was covered in magic but none his own. It made Leilani want to investigate him but she'd chosen to tell her sister and father about it instead. Not like it was any of her business who this guy was. However, he was strangely fixated on Emma and as an extension, Henry.

Regina built a new playground for the children after a huge storm passed through and wrecked the old one. Somehow this ended up with Emma getting into a bit of trouble because she'd thought Regina was doing something nefarious instead. Needless to say, Regina was miffed. Leilani wasn't all that surprised though. Henry didn't change that much from thinking Regina was evil embodied which Leilani found hilarious. Regina didn't see the humor. 

And today's local entertainment was that apparently Mary-Margaret has become the town's scarlet woman. Leilani was a bit surprised at this but she guessed it made sense since everyone was under a curse to abolish their happy endings. Leilani had to discourage Regina from spray painting 'Tramp' on Mary-Margaret's car though which they both got into an argument about. Apparently, Regina was indignant that Mary-Margaret hurt her friend Katheryn but she was also vindictive because it was 'Snow White'. 

Leilani understood her sister's little acts of revenge but spray painting someone's car, she was sure, was breaking some kind of law. Plus, the poor woman was already getting the cold shoulder from the entire town. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David ran up to Mary-Margaret as she reached her car. She'd already bumped into Granny and felt how much disgust the woman seemed to feel for her now.

"I'm sorry. I don't know how any of this happened," he said as he reached her.

Mary-Margaret crossed her arms and her eyes filled with tears. "You don't know? Really?"

"Mary Margaret, I can't control what other people do," he said in slight exasperation over the entire situation.

"No, but you can control what you do, and you lied. And now everyone is calling me a tramp."

"Who told her," he asked a bit heatedly.

"That is exactly the wrong question. The real question is why didn't you do what we discussed? Why didn't you tell her?"

"I thought we could spare her feelings," he said a bit desperately as he tried to get Mary-Margaret to see from his side of things.

"Right. You thought. Not we. You."

"And we discussed this. I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

"Now everyone is hurt. I thought we had an understanding. An agreement. Not only did you lie to her but you lied to me," her voice growing a bit louder at the end in her righteous anger.

"Mary-Margaret, please. I want to see if this-what we have is love. All you have to do is say yes. Wasn't that what you said? That we had to pick up the pieces and move on," he asked her in his desperation.

"David, this isn't love. What we have is something else entirely. What we have is destructive, and it has to stop," she said sadly as she shifted a bit more away from him. 

"What are you trying to say," he asked even as a tear slipped out of his left eye.

"That we shouldn't be together," she said before getting into her car and driving away.


	12. Chapter 12

Leilani planned her trip out of town in search of her brother for this day. They'd made plans a while back with her father but daily life seemed to have gotten in the way. Luna was staying behind because she said that Neal would be more receptive if it were only her that showed up. She didn't really mind since she tended to listen to whatever Luna said.

"Be safe and remember to call me every night," Rumpelstiltskin told his daughter as she stood next to the new car that her and Luna had bought. Luna had told her she could easily walk to work since the town was so small and she'd have more use for it. 

"I'm always safe. Plus, nothing can kill me anyways. I'll make sure to bring my brother home, Daddy. No need to worry. I'll definitely come back."

Leilani knew that her father was rather nervous about Leilani passing the line into and out of Storybrooke. She'd even gotten the true story of what happened between her brother and father in the Enchanted Forest. It was going to be a pain in the arse getting her brother to follow her to Storybrooke but she'd smoke him to the border if he made it really difficult.

She climbed into the car and shut the door behind her before waving to her dad goodbye and pulling away from the curb.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took her over a week to track down her brother. It seemed like she was always just missing him especially in such a large city like New York. The first time her watch went off had been inside of a rather large crowd and she couldn't figure out if he was to the left, right, front or back of her in any case. She'd made sure to call her father every night with updates and she could tell he was trying to hide his disappointment from her. 

She currently was standing outside of an old building that she knew her brother just walked inside of. Leilani quickly entered and looked at the elevator numbers as they ascended. Once it stopped she pressed the button and soon joined as well. In what seemed hours but probably was seconds, she arrived on his floor. It took a while to find which room he was in because she had to walk up to each door with her wrist in front of her. Leilani was positive that she looked slightly deranged but didn't care. 

This was the door. Her watch had beeped, indicating he was just inside. She took a solidifying breath before buzzing the ringer. 

'Just a moment' was shouted through the door. Leilani smoothed her sweaty palms on her dragon hide pants as she shifted subtly. The door opened to reveal an older male with hazel colored eyes, a mustache, and brown hair like their father's. Leilani smiled somewhat nervously. 

"Can I help ya," he asked in curiosity. 

"Umm. I know this is rather strange," she began and ignored his surprise about her accent. "But you wouldn't mind if I came in for this conversation? It's taken a rather long time to track you down."

He immediately became guarded. "Why would ya need to track little 'ol me down?"

Neal was suspicious of the lady in front of him. There was just something about her that reminded him of someone. No one he could place at the moment though.

"No, no, no. You got it wrong. I'm not here about anything bad or something like that! I swear. It's just, rather difficult to say without a long explanation."

Neal released some of his tension but was still on guard as he narrowed his eyes at her and than stepped back to allow her to walk inside. Leilani passed him by and walked further into the messy apartment. Papers were scattered on a desk and it looked as though he pretty much lived from boxes. She nudged some trash out of the way to take a seat on a ripped up couch. 

"What ya want with me lady," he asked her as he leaned against the wall and regarded her. 

Leilani leaned against a hand as she stared right back at her brother.

"I'm your sister," she blurted out before flushing red in embarrassment. Hadn't she done something similar when meeting her father?

"I ain't got no sisters, lady. You must've found the wrong person," he said as he pushed himself off the wall.

"Oh no, I definitely found the right person. My father's Rumpelstiltskin. Our Father to be exact."

Neal's eyes widened as he slumped back into the wall. "H..How?"

"The usual. Birds and the bees," she said casually as she looked anywhere but at him.

He huffed in irritation. "I meant how and why are you here. Why'd you come to find me."

Leilani finally looked at him and he could see the slight pain in her eyes. She chewed on her bottom lip before speaking. "I just found out that I was apparently illegally adopted and that I had family out there. Still living. I wanted to find my family."

"That explains the why but not the how."

"I used my magic to find you," she slightly whispered with a grimace at the end.. She knew how much her brother hated magic. As evidence to the reaction she was now getting from him. 

He ran a shaky hand through his hair. 

"You have magic?"

"I was born from a strong Sorcerer and Sorceress. Of course I have magic. Does it truly displease you so much," she asked.

"Magic destroyed my father. Our father," he remedied. 

"That may be but he's changed. Granted, he'll never be some good person but he's not some evil villain that you would be ashamed of calling father. He wants to see you. He's been searching for you for over three centuries, Neal."

"You've seen him?! You went to Storybrooke," he asked urgently.

"You know about Storybrooke? You knew he was there and didn't go to see him," she asked with a little bit of hurt. 

"You don't know what he did."

"Of course I know what he did, Baelfire," she shouted as she stood to pace. Her magic circled around her in her anger. "He made a mistake! Everyone makes bad decisions! Haven't you made a bad decision?! Haven't you hurt someone because of your choices? Don't try to act like daddy is the only one who ever takes the wrong path."

At her words he seemed as though she had struck him. He shut his eyes as a memory of leaving Emma played back in his mind. His confrontation with August and how he'd allowed Emma to take the fall for the stolen watches. Yes, he'd made his own poor choices. 

"Look. All I want is for you to just give him a chance. If afterwards you're still pissed off and want nothing to do with us. Fine. But please, just give us a chance. I want to know my brother."

Neal opened his eyes to stare into eerily green-yellow eyes that resembled his father's and finally gave a jerky nod of acceptance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

August Boothe finally convinced Emma to go for a ride with him so that he could try one last time to get her to believe the truth of the Curse. To break the curse for all of them. He slowed down to a stop outside a diner in the middle of forest.

"What the hell is this," Emma asked as she got off the back of his bike.

"Last I checked, it was a diner," he immediately answered.

"No more screwing around. I am not a character in one of your books. What the hell are we doing here," Emma asked as she began to get a little pissed off to be here of all places.

"I think you know. You've been here before. This is the diner you were brought to when you were found as a baby," August said as he unstrapped the helmet from his head and stared straight back at Emma.

"So you found an article about me. So what? I thought this trip was supposed to be about you.""It is. This is my story, and it's your story.""And how is that," she asked humorlessly.

"That 7-year-old boy who found you, that was me."

He began to walk away in the direction of the tree with a hole in it. It was a bit of a distance away from the road. Emma followed noisily behind him.

"Why are we in the woods," Emma shouted from behind him.

"All the answers you've been searching for are right where I found you."

"See? You're not that 7-year-old boy. I wasn't found in the woods. I was found on the side of a highway," she said with a bit of exasperation of this entire thing."Why do you think that? Because you read it in the newspaper? Did it ever occur to you that maybe that 7-year-old boy lied about where he found you?"

"No. But it occurs to me that you've been lying to me about everything, and I'm done listening," she said with finality before turning back around to head back to the road.

"When I found you, you were wrapped in a blanket, and the name "Emma" was embroidered along the bottom of it. That wasn't in the article, was it? How would I know that unless I was there," he shouted out which made her pause in her retreat.

"Okay. Let's say you were that kid. Why lie about where you found me," she said to play along with his story.

"I lied to protect you."

"From what," she asked as she walked up to his side.

"That," he said as he pointed to one of the trees in front of them.

"A tree," Emma asked in disbelief.

"You've read Henry's book, right? You know about the curse, don't you? Your role in it? It's true, Emma. We both came into this world through this tree," he said as he stepped forward so that she could see the hole in the tree.

"You're asking me to believe that you are a fairy tale character," she asked slightly hysterically.

"Pinocchio."

"Right. Of course Pinocchio. Explains all the lying," she said rather snidely before continuing, "You're the one who added the story to Henry's book.""I needed you to know the truth," he said desperately."The truth is you are out of your mind, and you're not even a very good liar. Why not write the end of that story?"

He spread his hands out with a smile. "Because this is the ending, and we're writing it right now."

"And how does this story end?"

"With you believing," was his simple response.

"Not gonna happen." Emma immediately turned to leave. August quickly tried to follow her and prevent her from leaving."Emma? Emma, wait." August fell to the ground in pain as his leg began to act up again. He knew that he was turning back to wood because there wasn't any magic here and how he hadn't listened to what the blue fairy had told him. Emma turned back around at the pained noises he was making.  
"What is wrong with your leg," she asked exasperatedly.

"I failed."

"What are you talking about?"

"It doesn't matter. You don't believe," he said despondently as he sat on a fallen tree and stared off into the forest. 

"If you think that by making me feel sorry for you that something's gonna change, you are wrong.""I am not screwing around here," he shouted as he got a bit pissed off at Emma. "Whatever you believe or don't, this is real, Emma. I am sick."

"That's an understatement," she mumbled.

"You ever been to Phuket? It's beautiful. Amazing island. Full of pleasures. The perfect place to lose oneself. That's where I was when you decided to stay in Storybrooke," he said almost a bit absentmindedly.

"How do you know when I decided to stay in Storybrooke?"

"Because at 8:15 in the morning, I woke up with a shooting pain in my leg. That's 8:15 at night in Storybrooke. Sound familiar? That's when time there started to move forward again. I was supposed to be there for you, and I wasn't. Because I was halfway around the world, I got a painful reminder of just how far I'd strayed. If that tree won't make you believe, maybe this will." In one last desperate attempt he pulled the leg of his pants up to reveal his wooden leg. All that Emma saw was a human leg.

"How does that prove anything?"

"Look," he shouted as he pointed at his wooden leg again.

"August, I'm looking," she answered back. Emma was honestly worried about the man's mental health if he thought seeing a hairy leg was some sort of proof that Storybrooke was under a curse."You don't see it, do you?"

"See what?"

"Your denial is more powerful than I thought. It's preventing you from seeing the truth," August said by way of explanation.

"Okay, one of us is losing it here, and it's not me.""You don't want to believe," he said sadly. "After everything you've seen, why can't you just do it?"

"Why is it so important to you that I do?"

"Because I, the town everyone needs you."

"I don't want them to need me.""Well, that's too bad, because we all do."

Emma began to pace as her temper began to get the better of her. "You're saying that I am responsible for everyone's happiness? That is crap! I didn't ask for that! I don't want it!"

"Right now. A little while ago, you didn't want Henry either, but then he came to you, and now you are fighting like hell for him," August retorted.

"For him! Because that is all I can handle right now. And I'm not even doing a good job at that! Now you're telling me I have to save everyone? That is beyond ridiculous. I don't want any of it," she shouted as tears began to form in her eyes."Well, that's too bad, Emma, because that doesn't change the truth. You are our only hope," August said stubbornly."Then you're all screwed."


	13. Chapter 13

Neal and Leilani drove to Maine and talked about their lives. She felt that Neal wasn't telling her everything, especially since he was over three centuries old and that was a lot of memories to go through even if they had hours to discuss them. He did, however, get to know exactly how his sister was treated and how she was used as a tool for a war she had no reason to fight in. She'd only been a child but he guessed that they seemed to relate that way.

When he was a young boy he had been almost drafted to fight in the troll wars. That is, until his father had taken the power of the Dark One and saved him from that possibility. Leilani pointed out that their father had taken on the price to be paid in order for him to stay safe. Everything that Rumpelstiltskin has done has been for his child. 

They made it to Storybrooke just as the first rain began and Leilani turned the windshield wipers on. Neal stared at the sign that showed the one place he had been avoiding.

"Welcome to Storybrooke," Leilani said as she pulled the car forward. She felt a shudder go through her body as she was closed off from her original Death and the other one took over.

Neal stared straight ahead as he chewed the inside of his cheek. They drove in silence as she navigated the roads to reach the house she shared with Luna. She'd called her father when they left New York but she hadn't since. He'd be surprised when she told him that she was home. 

"Where are you taking me?"

"We're going to my house that I share with Luna."

"Your odd friend?"

"She's not odd," Leilani said indignantly. "She's special. Luna just knows things. You'll understand when you meet her."

Neal shrugged a careless shoulder before turning to look at the small town they'd entered. Leilani finally pulled into her house's driveway. The house was a dark blue with grey beams, it wasn't too dark but it pleased Lei's eyes. As opposed to her dad's peptol colored house.

They got out of the car as the garage shut behind them. Neal raised an eyebrow at the fact that she shut it so quickly.

"There's wards around the house that close up when the garage shuts. I'd rather not have some nefarious person sneaking in somehow," she answered his unasked question.

"Do you expect to go to war with someone or something?"

"No but it doesn't hurt to be safe."

He knew that this was merely caused by her days on the run while she fought in a war so he didn't remark on it. When they stepped inside they were immediately greeted by a blonde haired woman who he was guessing was Luna.

"Welcome back, Lei. Hello, Baelfire," Luna said in her usual dreamy way.

"Um, hello?"

"Luna! I missed you," Leilani said as she walked forward to hug Luna. 

"I missed you too, Lei. But luckily you brought your brother back."

"I need to cook some dinner and invite daddy over," Leilani said as she stepped back. 

"I already began dinner. You just need to call Rumpelstiltskin," Luna said before walking away. 

Leilani followed behind her and Neal trailed after his sister. He wasn't altogether sure he wanted to see his father right now but he knew his sister wouldn't listen to him. After she'd threatened him for the fifth time on their way here he wasn't going to cross her. She was a rather vicious little thing.

Leilani left Neal with Luna as she made her way to her bedroom before smoking out of it to pop up in the Pawn Shops back room. It sounded like he was talking with Emma in the front of the shop. She stepped out of the backroom and smiled at Emma.

"Hey Emma. How are you doing," she asked as she stepped up beside her father.

Emma was surprised to see Leilani in the back of the Pawn Shop but smiled and greeted her in kind. 

"I'm going that's for sure. How've you been, Leilani?"

"I'm fantasic. I just got back from getting my brother," she answered with a chirp to her voice. 

Rumpelstiltskin seemed to freeze beside her before turning to look at her with hope in his eyes. She turned to him before saying, "I just came by to let you know that we were having dinner at my place. I wanted to invite you to join us."

"You know Mr. Gold?"

"Do I know him," she gave Emma a wry smile. "He's my father. Of course I know him."

Emma looked surprised by this admission. "Isn't Regina your sister?"

"She's my half sister. Our fathers are different."

"Oh."

Leilani leaned over to give her father a kiss on the cheek before saying, "I'll see you at dinner, daddy. It was nice seeing you Emma."

"Nice seeing you too, Leilani."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neal took a shower while Leilani and Luna cooked dinner. 

"So, how was your journey?"

"It was long. I thought I'd have found him the first day there but he kept seeming to avoid me. How was your week that I was gone?"

"It seems that Emma is trying to take Henry away from Regina. However, Henry seems to be coming around to Regina. I visited her a couple of times to get rid of the wrackspurts."

"Those buggers are everywhere," Leilani mumbled as she stuck a finger in her mouth to taste the sauce. It just needed a bit more salt and then it would be perfect. 

Of course she could've easily have cooked with magic but she was used to making things from scratch. Her conditioning with the Dursley's were at play. The doorbell rang and Leilani hurried to open it. 

"I see that you've added your own protections around the place," her father said as soon as she opened the door.

"It's sort of automatic," she said in embarrassment. She knew how strong her wards were and the fact that her father could tell exactly what they were and what they did had her reddening. It was a bit excessive. 

"No worries, dearie. I'm glad you know how to protect yourself."

He stepped inside and took off his jacket and scarf in the closet. Leilani led the way to the dining room. 

"I like what you've done to the place," he said as he glanced around.

Leilani looked around and smiled. Rumpelstiltskin had already furnished the house for her but Luna and Leilani had added their own touches. They'd replaced the heavy drapes with sheer blue grey gauze that let in the light from the window but gave them some privacy. There was also hints of grey and blue all around the living room. 

They'd even begun hanging up some magical portraits that she'd retrieved from her trunk. Most of them were from Potter Manor but there were a few that came from the Black House. Many of them greeted her father cordially while others lifted their noses at their 'muggle' attire. Leilaani snorted in amusement as she led the way further inside. 

She made sure to have her father sit at the head of the table before going back in to the kitchen. Neal chose that time to enter the dining room. He paused in the doorway as his father stared back at him. Neal ran a hand down his shirt before stepping into the room.

"Papa," he said by greeting as he sat down in the chair. 

"Bae," Rumpel choked out. 

"Don't." Neal didn't want to hear an apology. He'd already heard everything from Leilani. "I already heard everything from Lei.. I know you're sorry but that doesn't mean I don't feel hurt still. I told her that I'd give you a chance though, so here I am."

"Good. Good. I'm so glad to have you here." There was so much that he wanted to say but he chose to keep it to himself. 

Soon they were all eating dinner together and talking. Everything was really peaceful even though Leilani had expected a huge blowout. She cleaned the dishes after sending her father off and Neal told her he was going for a walk around the town. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neal pushed his hands into his pockets as he walked down the road. The night breeze was freezing in temperature after it had rained earlier. It would probably rain again but for now the night sky was clear. Everything was quiet in the surroundings except for the occasional passerby leaving to head home from late night work or the local watering hole. 

He walked along in silence as he mulled over what had happened in the past couple days. Something suddenly drew his attention across the street. He wasn't completely sure what exactly it was but as soon as his eyes fell on the person he stopped in shock.

"Emma?"

The blonde looked up and across the street to the man who had said her name. She couldn't believe who she was seeing. Why was Neal here? Emma felt a bit cornered because Henry was with her. 

Neal jogged across the street to stand in front of her. He smiled happily even as she grew a bit pissed off that he thought she'd be happy to see him.

"Neal," she said curtly.

"What are ya doin' here?"

"I should be asking you that," she said evasively.

"Who's this Emma," Henry asked from beside her.

"No one."

"I'm Neal. And who might you be?"

"I'm her son," Henry said as he pointed at Emma.

Neal's eyes widened before looking at Emma suspiciously. She shifted on her feet as she tried not to look into his eyes.

"How old are you," he asked Henry.

"I'm 10 almost 11."

It had been about eleven years ago that he and Emma were together and then she was in jail, serving time for 'stealing watches'. There was only one thing he could ask.

"Is he mine?"

"Neal can we talk about this another time," Emma asked a bit uncomfortably.

"Is he my son, Emma?!"

Henry looked confused as he watched Neal get angry at Emma. 

Emma looked him in the eyes with gritted teeth. "Yes."

"You told me that my dad was dead," Henry accused Emma. 

"Henry," she tried to say but Henry wasn't hearing it. Henry took off running. 

"Thanks a lot, Neal," she said before she tried to chase after him. Neal grabbed her arm.

"How could you hide my son from me?"

"You left me to rot in jail. I didn't think you'd care about me let alone a baby. Now let me go."

He released her as though burned and she took off after Henry. Neal walked back to Leilani's in shock. He had a son. Emma was here. He'd have to talk to her tomorrow and get to know his son. It was no longer just his father and sister that he was staying here for.


	14. Chapter 14

It had been a couple days since Leilani had brought Neal back with her and from what she could gather he was working rather quick in the 'Emma Department'. At first, Emma had been pissed off at him and now they even planned on a maybe date. She'd see how it went though. Leilani realized that she would rather be working on her mindscape than volunteering at the animal shelter so she made sure to let them know she was busy. 

Luna left her in peace.

She entered her mindscape and began the arduous process of creating a separate hallway like the one that Death had created. Leilani had finally formed one but now she was trying to figure out how to make something similar to a barrier but flimsy enough that she could use her powers without the consequences of having a backlash. 

Death watched it's Mistress as she trained herself tiredly. It was drawing near 6 o'clock in the outside world when she finally put up a strong barrier of her own creation. 

"Death. I want you to help me shift my Death magic into this new hall and then let go," she said from her sitting position in front of the hall. 

Asss you wissh Mistresss.

The shadows seemed to slide across the floor as they made their way to the brand new hallways she'd created in her mindscape. Leilani felt the echoes loud and clear; so much so, that in the real world her nose and eyes had begun to bleed from the pain. She couldn't come out of her meditative state yet though. It took Death ten minutes to slip all of her Death Magic behind the barrier but it felt like hours to her. She was sprawled out on the floor of her mindscape trying to take in deep breaths, breathing through the pain.

Even as she had begun to get her bearings and wanting to take a look at her work, there was a sudden whiplash of magic in the real world. Her eyes sprang open on a gasp. She quickly wiped her face but that just merely spread the blood all over, before smoking to her father's Pawn Shop.

"What was that," she asked quickly as she ran into the front of his shop and nearly ran into him.

Rumpelstiltskin nearly had a heart attack when he saw all the blood smeared across his daughter's face. 

"What happened to you?!"

"Just had a bit too much pain jolted to the system. Now, what was that wave of magic?"

"That, my dear, was the power of true love's kiss. Though who Emma kissed is beyond me. I would've said Henry but that was too 'passionate' to be a parent/child love."

"I wonder if it was Neal."

"What about your brother?"

"You didn't hear? I thought he would've told you. Apparently Henry is his and Emma's child. You're a grand-daddy!"

Rumpelstiltskin was well and truly shocked to say the least. 

Oh no! If the curse was broken then everyone would be looking for her sister! 

"Gotta go! Gina will need my help. You guys still don't have magic."

"Well we could if you could get that dragon underneath the Library to cough up that egg."

"I'll worry about that after I make sure Gina is safe. Love you daddy," she shouted before quickly smoking away.

"My daughter comes and goes as she pleases. Reminds me of myself."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"How the hell was the curse broken." Was the first thing that Leilani heard as she smoked into her sister's office. 

"True love's kiss. Obviously," Leilani answered sarcastically as she stepped up next to Regina. "I think we should be getting you back to the Pawn Shop before a riot takes place. You can stay with Luna and I. That's if you want."

"I will not be forced to cower and hide away. I'll be returning to my home."

"Not without me, you aren't. If anyone gets a little handsy .. well let's just hope they don't," Leilani said cryptically.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They arrived just in time for the riot of people to arrive at her door, demanding Regina's head. Regina straightened her spine and confidently went to open the door. The sounds of their demands reached them before she could open it.

"Open up! Open up, or we're coming in!"

"Can I help you," Regina asked after she'd opened the door. Leilani stood just behind her as she narrowed her eyes at the massive amount of people on Regina's front stoop.

"That smirk isn't gonna last forever, Regina. You took everything from us, and now--"

Regina cut him off, "What? Now you're gonna kill me?"

"Eventually, but first you need to suffer. Listening to you has been enough suffering for all of us," Dr. Whale shouted at Regina.

Others in the surrounds agreed with a 'That's right'.

"You wanted to see your queen? Well, my dears, here she is."

She spread her arms to welcome them but instead of cowering like she'd thought they would, Dr. Whale charged towards her.

"She's powerless! Get here! Don't let her get away!"

Before they could reach Regina however, there was a large column of flames that separated the two groups. This happened at the same time that Emma arrived with Mary-Margaret and David beside her.

"Knock it off! Step away from Regina," Emma shouted as Graham also stood next to her to help control the crowd. 

"Why should I listen to you," Dr. Whale asked snidely.

"Because I am still the sheriff and Emma is my deputy," Graham said from next to her. Emma continued his little speech. "And because she saved you, all of you. And because no matter what Regina did, it does not justify this. We are not murderers here."

"Well, we're not from this world," someone from the crowd shouted out."Yeah, well, you're in it now," Emma said gruffly. Dr. Whale tried to push past Emma which knocked her stumbling close to the wall of flames that Leilani still held between the crowd and her sister. David rushed forward and slammed Dr. Whale into the wall.

"Okay, Whale, we're done. Back off," David said to the man he had an elbow to the throat of.

"You're not my prince," Dr. Whale said defiantly.

"Who are you, Whale?"

"That's my business."

"Well, my business is making sure this town doesn't go to hell, so whether or not I'm your prince isn't the issue. We have a lot to figure out, and this isn't the way to do it. And Regina's death won't provide any answers," David said reasonably.

"She needs to be locked up for her safety, and more importantly, for ours," Mary-Margaret said from behind her Husband.

"So I'm a prisoner now," Regina asked with slight amusement. "I don't think my sister approves of this."

"I'll be the one protecting my sister from you and for you. She can't do any damage to you at my house and there's no way any of you will be able to get past my wards to harm her. However, I reserve the right to Henry coming over to visit every other day. I'm his biological aunt through my brother, his father. And even if you don't want to follow the laws of this world, I will state it now. Legally Regina is still his mother by law and if you try to deny us visiting rights I will have you charged with kidnapping. Your curse on the town has been broken which means that the outside world can now see you. Don't test me," Leilani said with finality before wrapping her arms tightly around Regina's middle before smoking them away.

Emma knew Leilani wouldn't hurt Henry and as much as she wished to be Henry's mom she didn't think she'd win a case with a court hearing. Regina was actually a good mother no matter how many 'but she's the evil queen's you throw to a judge, it probably wouldn't hold up in court. She was drawn from her thoughts because someone suddenly asked, "If the curse is broken, why didn't we go back?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They arrived back home to find Henry there with Neal. He immediately ran forward to wrap his arms around Regina as he had been worried. Leilani smiled at the happy expression growing on her sister's face. She looked up and her smile brightened some more when she saw Neal.

"Sooo, you broke the curse..." her voice trailed off as she noticed a light blush on Neal's face. "Your face says it all, brother dearest. Must mean it was true love!"

"It was only a parting kiss! I didn't think it would notify everyone what had just happened."

"Well it did," Regina said before continuing. "As much as I don't want to think about your 'true love', I've got the whole town yelling for my head on a stick currently."

"I need to go ask a dragon to cough up an egg," Leilani said randomly. Regina looked at her as though she'd grown a second head and Neal was pretty used to Luna saying absurd things so for his sister to also join in wasn't much of a stretch. He merely shrugged a shoulder as if he was fine with her running off to tango with a fully grown dragon.

"You're not talking about Maleficent are you," Regina asked with narrowed eyes.

"I might. I might not. You'll never know," she said as she giggled and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. She reappeared inside the locked Library and walked to the hidden elevator. She could've just smoked down but she liked doing it the old fashioned way.

When she arrived in the large cavern she stood still and listened for movement. When none was forthcoming she decided to use her serpent language to talk to Maleficent.

"Maleficent, I'm not here to harm you. I just need that egg that someone made you swallow a long time ago, in another land," she hissed out. Her hisses echoed all around her. It seemed that her voice had caught the attention of the dragon because rocks began tumbling as she slid her massive body forward.

"Serpent Speaker, you aren't kin but you smell similar. You also smell of Death. What will you give me in exchange for this egg that's within me?"

"I'll return you to your original body. I gather that you have some unresolved business to attend. However, you can't attack any of my nest mates. Your 'Evil Queen' Regina is my blooded sister. And the Dark One is my father."

"I'll not harm your nest mates if you can truly give me back my human form, Serpent Speaker," she answered before undulating her neck and spitting up a gold encrusted egg the size of two large palms.

Leilani focused on her magic and began undoing the curse keeping Maleficent bound in this eternal form down here. It took some hard curse breaking techniques but she finally accomplished her end of the deal. The dragon sunk down and folded in on itself before smoke surrounded the misshapen body. Once the smoke cleared a beautiful curly blonde haired woman stood before her in a tight black and purple gown.

"That outfit is so last season," Leilani said before flicking a finger in Maleficent's direction. Her gown turned into tight deep purple leather pants and a black tank top underneath a black, purple and green stitched leather jacket. She'd pulled All of Maleficent's blonde curls in a large messy bun with a few stray curls to frame her face.

"Perfect! Now you'll fit in but also stand out. You're a bombshell."

Maleficent glanced down at her now trouser clad legs and raised an eyebrow but she noticed the other woman was wearing something similar so she would listen for now.

"Come on. I'll smoke us back to my house after I drop this off to my father."


	15. Chapter 15

Rumpelstiltskin told Leilani what to do with the bottle that he'd shown her was inside of the egg and now she was currently trekking through the woods. It seemed she was the go between for the dead as well as the living. She knew that her father had an injured leg so it would've been difficult for him to walk through the forest and she also knew that this was to give her family a safety measure with all the townsfolk asking for their deaths but still. 

In the distance she could just make out the shape of the well so she smoked to it's side. It was an old fashioned well made from stone with a placard on it's edge speaking of the legend about it. It was a wishing well. Well, here's to wishing to bring magic back to the town. She uncorked the bottle and dropped the entire thing into the hole. 

At first, nothing seemed to happen but then suddenly a cloud of black and purple smoke surfaced. It spread out on the forest floor before growing larger, until it created an entire wall of magic. Since her work here was done she decided to go grab her father and return back home. Her house was a bit crowded today. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rumpelstiltskin sat on one of the chairs in Leilani and Luna's living room while Regina stared out the window.

"And this is supposed to give us back magic," Regina asked as she watched the magic cloud grow closer.

"That's what daddy said," Leilani said as she stepped up to her sister's side. 

Maleficent seemed fascinated by all the strange baubles within the house but the moving portraits were what drew her attention. She was having a winded conversation with a man named Phineas Black about the differences in their magic. It intrigued her that the magic user's in this land wielded a wand similar to the fairies. When asked if he was a fairy, he'd grown highly offended and voiced as much. 

Luckily for Leilani, Maleficent had chosen to drop the issue of finding her daughter for now. There was too much already on their plates at the moment. 

Soon the cloud of magic reached their house, blocking out the light of the sun. Everyone broke out in goosebumps at the feel of magic in their surroundings. Baelfire drew Henry closer to his side even as Luna spread her arms and spun in circles while humming. Rumpel closed his eyes and let out a pleased sigh and Regina smirked a devious smile.

Regina tried to light a fire on top of her hand to see if her magic was truly back but nothing came about.

"Why isn't it working," Regina asked as she turned to stare at Rumpelstiltskin.

"Magic works differently here. Maybe you've forgotten how to wield it," he told her. 

"Stop with the cryptic shit. Tell me how to fix this."

"There's nothing to fix. You're just not concentrating enough."

Regina thought back to how she had first learned magic and immediately demanded, "I want the book. Give it to me."

"Mom," Henry stepped forward. "Why do you need magic?"

"To protect myself and you, Henry. You know I wouldn't use it to harm anyone," she said as she knelt down in front of Henry. 

"Are you looking for this," Rumpelstiltskin asked as a book appeared in his hand within a cloud of purple smoke.

She reached a hand out to grasp hold of the book. "Thank you."

"Ah, Ah. We didn't make a deal just yet, dearie."

Leilani rolled her eyes but she knew how her father's magic worked. It was impossible for him to truly give something to someone without some sort of repercussion. 

"What do you want," Regina asked tiredly.

"The truth," he said as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"About what?"

"What happened to Belle."

Leilani was mumbling to herself about who this Belle person was. 

Regina grew uncomfortable. "Fine! She's still alive. Inside of the Hospital under constant surveillance."

Rumpelstiltskin grew angry but when he saw both Baelfire and Leilani he reeled it in. 

"I will be getting her back," he said between gritted teeth before handing her the book. 

Regina nervously stepped away from him and secluded herself in the corner as she opened the book up. 

"Seeing how everyone seems to be set to rights. Now would be the time to figure out where everyone is staying the night," Leilani spoke up finally.

"Henry and I will stay at Papa's. You'll have your hands full with both Regina and.. Maleficent?"

Leilani nodded in understanding to Neal's explanation. Her father did have the room for both Neal and Henry so she wasn't worried about that. 

"That seems fine. I'm sure daddy will be happy to have the both of you over for the night. He could get to know his grandson," she said with a hint of steel to her tone. Leilani was still upset that her brother hadn't told their father about Henry and Emma. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Henry, Neal and her father left; now she was left with her sister and Maleficent to deal with. Her sister was still in the midst of reading the book in her hands when a black smoke rose from it and entered her nose. Regina closed her eyes as she inhaled. Leilani wasn't altogether sure what that was but she chose to ignore it in favor of walking towards Maleficent.

"Soo, I know you have some bad blood with my sister Regina but could you put that aside and I promise to find your daughter?"

Maleficent turned from her conversation with another portrait to regard Leilani curiously.

"I didn't know that Regina had a sister. Especially not one so young as you."

Leilani sighed. "Technically, I'm her older sister. Traveling between dimensions and quite possibly a bit of time travel has me set at 18. However, going by my Lineage Tests I'm the older of the two of us."

"She's my half sister through my mother, Cora."

Regina had stepped up beside Leilani and regarded Maleficent. She was weary of her 'friend' and how she'd react to what she'd done when they'd been brought over with the curse. Not to mention their fight when she took the curse from Maleficent.

"Interesting. And earlier? Your father is the Dark One?"

"Yep," Leilani said with a pop on 'p'. "We're just one big family here. So, anyways, is it a deal."

Maleficent narrowed her eyes at Regina before turning back to Leilani and finally releasing some tension. "Fine. It's a deal," she drawled.

Leilani held out a hand and Maleficent reached her own out a bit unsure. They shook and a flash of light indicated the deal was sealed. 

"What was that," Maleficent asked.

"I get half my magic from my father. Deals are binding with me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leilani decided to immediately go find Maleficent's daughter the next day by using some of the woman's blood and a location spell. She left the town but warned her sister to be careful before she left. 

Regina had her magic back so she wasn't that concerned about being harmed. Everyone within the town was gathered at the center of town searching for their loved ones, except one. Most know him, if at all, as Jefferson. However, his most commonly known name was the Mad Hatter. He had known who his daughter was the entire time the curse was in place- it was maddening. Regina had refused to help him get his daughter back and after 28 years of this he had finally hatched a plan to get back at 'the evil queen'. 

He'd broken into Gold's Pawn Shop and ransacked the back room until he found what he was searching for. A little gold pendant with a gold chain attached. The Mad Hatter made sure to keep his hands gloved as he handled it before quickly leaving. 

Regina was walking near the docks, staring out at the ocean's expanse as Jefferson walked towards her. She rolled her eyes at having to deal with him yet again.

"The curse is broken, Hatter. There's no reason for you not to reunite with your precious daughter."

"I can't. And you know it. You ruined my life. Ruined my chance at having my daughter want for nothing," he said as he stepped closer to her. The Hatter had a mad glint in his eyes but Regina disregarded it. She figured that if he tried to assault her she could simply use magic on him. 

Jefferson reached out and gripped her wrist as he demanded her to take his words seriously. 

"You tore my family apart and for that you deserve everything that's coming to you," he said vehemently. Before she could react, he'd pressed the pendant roughly into the flesh of her palm. 

Regina's eyes widened in shock as she stared down at what he'd just done. 

Jefferson laughed madly as he allowed the chain and pendant to fall to the cement. Regina stumbled backwards as a hole seemed to rip open from the ground and an unearthly wail came from within. She immediately smoked herself away, leaving Jefferson to continue his mad laughter at her retreat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone within the town were shocked by the sudden picked up winds in their surroundings and the wails of desperate souls that seemed to echo around them. 

"What is that," Emma shouted to her parents. 

"I don't know. But I know who does," Mary-Margaret, Snow White, said as she immediately headed towards Rumpelstiltskin's house. 

David and Emma followed behind her as they hurried towards his house and knocked on his door. They'd been expecting Rumpelstiltskin to open the door, so they were surprised to see Neal open it.

"Emma," he said in surprise.

"Neal," she asked in confusion before shaking it off.

"We need to see Rumpelstiltskin," Snow White said to Neal.

"Um, okay. Come on in," Neal said as he stepped aside. 

They walked into the living room and found Henry there watching t.v.

"Henry," Emma said as she rushed forward to give him a hug and check him over. 

Rumpelstiltskin walked into the room at this point and both Snow White and David were immediately on alert. 

"What can I do for you, Snow White and Prince Charming," he said with a bit of mocking to his voice when he said the last name.

"What have you done? We know it was you," David said as he stepped forward.

"I'm sorry but I haven't a clue what you mean. I've been here with my family this entire time."

"Go outside and see for yourself," David said hotly.

Rumpelstiltskin rolled his eyes before walking towards the door and stepping outside. He immediately knew what was happening but that didn't mean he knew who the wraith was after- that is until Regina smoked right in front of him with a wild look. 

"Regina," he said in a bit of shock. 

"Let me see Henry. That mad hatter called forth a wraith and marked me," she said as she stuck out her hand. 

He looked at the mark that appeared on the palm of her hand and gritted his teeth. 

"There's no way to stop a wraith," Rumpelstiltskin said. David, Snow White, and Emma had stepped forward to listen in. 

"You've gotta help her! She's my mom," Henry said as he crept forward to figure out what was going on. 

Emma turned and regarded Henry before steeling her resolve. "He's right. We can't let this thing just kill Regina."

"Emma," Snow said in a bit of shock. She wouldn't care what happened to Regina but her daughter seemed resolved to protect Regina.

"What can we do to stop this thing," Emma asked Rumpelstiltskin.

"There's no way to stop a wraith. Your only choice is to banish it to another realm but we have no way to do that," he answered. 

Regina chewed on her lip before finally saying, "I still have the Hatter's hat. We can use it to open a portal into the Enchanted Forest."

"We can't just release the wraith into the Enchanted Forest! What about the people there," David asked.

"There's no longer an Enchanted Forest. We'd be sending it into nothingness," Regina said with a straight face. 

She knew that the Enchanted Forest still existed but she wasn't going to tell them that. Snow White and David looked at Emma, waiting for her decision.

"Fine. Let's go get that hat and get this thing."


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will be heavily reliant on Once Upon A Time canon. Some bits are changed to better go with what I've written and changed so far. Such as, instead of Snow being the one to go to the Enchanted Forest, it will be David and Emma who fall inside. Just giving you an example of the changes. I needed someone who was under the sleeping curse to be kept behind, i.e. Snow, since Henry was never given the Poisoned Apple Turnover.

Within the City Hall, Regina, the Charmings, and Rumpelstiltskin gathered around in wait for the wraith to arrive. The winds were getting louder and the wails of the long dead echoed within the confines. Regina knelt on the floor as she tried to get the hat to work for her but she was rather frightened that the plan wouldn't work so her hands shook and the magic just wasn't catching.

"Anytime now, Dearie," Rumpelstiltskin said right before the twin doors slammed open and in swooped the wraith. It screeched as it's sights set upon Regina's form. 

"HEY!" David called out to the thing as he lit the end of the broomstick in his hand. Emma and Snow followed his example but soon after their fires were put out by the continued abundance of wind in their surroundings. 

"THIS ISN'T WORKING," Snow shouted. 

Emma threw her broom at the wraith as it swooped towards them. It reared backwards and Rumpel attempted to use magic to keep it distracted while Regina fought with the winds to get the hat to spin in the correct manner. 

The wraith slammed Rumpelstiltskin up against the wall which happened to also push Snow White across the floor and closer to the double doors. Emma knelt down and touched Regina's arm to steady her hold on the hat which gave Regina the strength to get the hat to work just in time. Regina was paying attention to the expanding vortex so she didn't see the wraith coming straight for her. 

Emma quickly pushed Regina out of the way of both the wraith and the vortex just in time. The wraith got sucked into the vortex but not before grabbing hold of Emma's leg. Emma cried out as her body fell into the vortex. 

"Noo!" David shouted out before taking a giant leap into the vortex after his daughter. Snow White unsteadily got to her feet and took off running towards the vortex to join her family but the vortex shut down before she could reach it. 

"No, no no," she shouted before turning to Regina. "Make it work! Open it back up!"

"I can't. Even if I could, you'd only be banished into nothingness like they did. There's no Enchanted Forest. I'm sorry."

Snow White fell to the floor and gripped the destroyed hat in her hands as she cried. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma and David awoke to a woman decked out in armor yanking on the rope she'd apparently tied around their wrists. 

"Get up. We're leaving," Mulan shouted at them from the back of her horse. 

Both Emma and David stumbled to their feet as the rope stretched taut and pulled them along behind her and another woman. 

"Who are you? Why have you tied us up," David asked.

"You're the ones who brought that wraith here. You must answer for your crimes," Mulan answered with a no nonsense type of attitude.

"You killed Phillip!" The other woman shouted at them from where she was riding in the front. It sounded like she held a grudge against the both of them.

David worried about his daughter being harmed but resolutely followed behind the horses alongside Emma. He'd find a way to escape with her eventually. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With Snow White being the only one that the resident people looked to in their times of need, she was currently being bombarded by questions. Suddenly the crowd split and Grumpy came barreling forward shouting as he half dragged Sneezy.

"Terrible news! Terrible news! We were out at the town limits," he shouted. "Tell 'em who you think you are, Sneezy!"

"Will you stop calling me that? You know who I am. I'm Tom Clark. I own the Dark Star Pharmacy," Sneezy responded before sneezing into a handkerchief.

"What's going on here," Snow White asked.

"If you cross the border, you lose your memory all over again," Grumpy answered her.

"And coming back doesn't fix it," She asked.

"If it did, would I have come running in yelling "terrible news"?!" His sarcasm was readily apparent. "If we leave, our cursed selves become our only selves."

"Do we know that anything's gotten out that way," someone in the crowd asked.

"I wonder if mom knows," Henry said from the side.

"Help! We need help," another resident shouted. It seemed to be a catalyst because more people began to shout."Don't leave us here!"

"We need something now!"

"What do we do?"

"People!," Snow White shouted to get everybody's attention. "Everybody! Everybody, meet back here in two hours. I'll tell you my plan to fix everything."

Snow White pushed through the crowd and left it behind with Ruby following closely behind her.

"What's the plan," Ruby asked.

"I don't know, but I got two hours to figure it out," she said it determinedly. "Come on."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma and David were thrown into a dungeon after David was knocked unconscious trying to help them escape.

"You sure he's gonna be okay," Emma asked.

"Don't worry. He'll be fine," the other prisoner responded as she stepped back from the duo.

"What is this place? Where are we," Emma asked as she looked around and scooted closer to her father's prone form.

"It's a little island our captors like to think of as their haven."

"Haven? From what?""The world's dangerous. What's left of it, anyway, well, they can't keep us down here," the other woman responded."We didn't do anything wrong," Emma said."Neither did I," she said."Then why are you here," Emma asked as she watched the other woman with narrowed eyes. There's no logical reason for someone to be thrown into a 'prison' for nothing.

"I'm here because of something my daughter did. The curse that ravaged this land she cast it," the other woman said as she began to walk idly around the open space given to them. "Regina."

"You're Regina's mother?"

"Yes. But you've nothing to fear from me. The apple fell very far from the tree. You're from over there, aren't you," Cora asked the question that she'd been wanting to ask since the two first arrived.

"So you're also Lei- -"

Emma was cut off by David's awakening. "Emma. No."

"Oh, Prince James. You're awake. I'm so relieved," Cora said with a small smile as if she were genuinely happy that he'd woken up."As bad as you think Regina is, this woman is worse," David told his daughter as he stepped in front of Emma."Oh, James, please.. Believe me, whatever she told you isn't true. I just want to help you," Cora said.

It seemed Cora hadn't realized what Emma was going to say about her having a daughter named Leilani, otherwise things may have turned out differently.

"Let's hear her out," Emma said."Emma," David tried to warn his daughter."Okay, right now we are at the bottom of a hole with no other options, and Henry is back in Storybrooke with Regina," Emma snapped as she was irritated that she was thrown into some sort of 'jail' immediately upon arriving in another Realm."Who's Henry," Cora asked.

"My son. I kind of share him with Regina. It's complicated," Emma answered Cora.

"Don't talk to her," David snapped at his daughter.

Suddenly someone's shout startled the pair.

"Enough! Our leader requests an audience."  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David had a short reunion with Lancelot before remembering the cupboard that had originally sent Emma away. It could be their only shot at returning to their family. Lancelot demanded they take his best warrior, Mulan, along their journey. 

"We must be vigilant if we hope to survive the journey," Mulan said as they walked through the forest.Emma turned to her. "Where's my gun? I want it back.""Is it magic?"

"Depends on who's pulling the trigger," Emma responded as she grabbed the gun out of Mulan's hand and checked the clip.

"Follow my lead, step where I step, do exactly as I say, and we might survive," Mulan said over her shoulder as she took the front."Thanks for the pep talk, but I think we're okay. I just killed a dragon last week," Emma said sarcastically as she watched the ground to pay attention to where she stepped."Have you ever seen an ogre," Mulan asked.

"Pretty sure I've dated a few," Emma mumbled.

"Legend has it that when they kill you, the last thing you see is yourself dying in the reflection in their eyes. Let's walk. It'll be dark soon," Mulan said eerily before turning back to face the front and lead on."Don't let her rattle you. I won't let anything happen to us. Stick to the plan," David said from beside her. He had a sword at his waist and a bow and arrow strapped to his back.

"What is the plan? You haven't told me anything. What's going on?"

"The wardrobe." Was his simple reply.

"Wardrobe? The wardrobe? Like, the wardrobe that sent little baby me to Maine," Emma asked in slight shock.

"Mm-hmm."

"You think it could get us back to Storybrooke?"

"I don't know. First we have to see if it survived the curse, then we'll worry about making it work," he said as he used his sword to cut away some debris in their way.

"Where is it?"

"My place. You wanna see where you're from, Emma? That's right," he paused to catch his breath. "We're going home."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They'd reached the castle and Mulan said she'd watch the perimeter with Aurora after the woman had tried to kill Emma. Apparently she held a grudge about the both of them having a hand in her prince's demise. Mulan was 'handling' it and both Emma and David left her to it. They were just looking around the 'baby room' when Lancelot appeared. Everything seemed to happen so quickly. 

One second it was Lancelot and the next it was Cora standing in front of them. Apparently she wanted a way to travel to 'the world without magic' to reunite with Regina. David was knocked unconscious so it was up to Emma to prevent the woman. With quick thinking she burned the cupboard and Cora turned on her. 

David immediately pushed Emma out of the way and used his sword to knock the magic aside. Mulan and Aurora ran into the room and Cora disappeared having known she was outnumbered. 

Now that there was nothing for them here, they chose to head back to the Safe Haven where they'd been originally. From there they would figure out another way to get back 'home'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of things were canon but there were also things changed if you couldn't tell. Leilani may still be uninvolved in the next chapter as well. Depends on how long it takes me to get past this whole 'Emma and David are in the Enchanted Forest' bit. I'm bringing Leilani back when Cora and Hook show up to Storybrooke. Should be interesting.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So in these chapters of Emma and David being in the Enchanted Forest I tried to stick as close to Canon as possible. Which sadly means that the sentences sound more shitty than my usual work. It was hard to describe things I was seeing with my eyes, oddly enough. It's much easier thinking it up in my head. Utterly baffling.

When they arrived back at 'Haven' they only found destruction. Dead bodies laid scattered all around the area. Not a living soul in sight. 

"Oh, my God," Emma mumbled as she stared at all the dead."This can't be. Our land we were protected here, hidden. How did the ogres find us," Mulan said in shock as she stared around.

"Ogres didn't do this," David said as he stared down at a dead body with their heart ripped out.

"What," Aurora asked.

"Cora did. Their hearts they were ripped out. This was her magic twisted and evil," David said as he pointed out the many bodies in their surroundings with missing hearts.

"We have to stop her," Aurora said as she too looked around in shock."Too late," Emma said."She killed them. She killed them all," Aurora said as she tried to not look at the dead."No, we have to stop her before she hurts anyone else," Mulan said with conviction."Hey. Hey! Look. There's someone under there," Emma said as she saw some bodies moving to her left.

They ran over and begun to pull the bodies layered on top off of the person beneath that was still living.

"He's alive," David said as he looked at the man in raggedy clothes and showing them a scared look."Please," the man said as he begged for his life."It's okay," Mulan said as she stepped forward to comfort the man."Please help me."

"It's okay. You're safe now. We won't hurt you," Mulan assured the man.

"Thank you. Thank you." He spouted his thanks as they reassured him that he was safe.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Emma moved away from the others as she had Mulan follow beside her. When they got far enough away she turned to ask, "Have you seen him before?"

"Yes, I've seen him around. He's a blacksmith. Came to our camp a couple months ago. Said he lost his hand in an ogre attack," Mulan explained as she kept an eye on Aurora.

"Why would Cora leave a survivor? It's messy. Doesn't make sense," Emma spoke her concerns out loud."You think he's lying," she asked.

Emma shook her head as she tried to clear her mind and collect her thoughts. "I think Cora's tricked us before. I don't want that to happen again."

Emma walked up as David handed him some water.

"Here you go," David said as he handed over the pouch of water."I can't thank you enough for your kindness. Fortune, it seems, has seen fit to show me favor," the man said after he took a sip of the water."An island full of corpses," Emma said suspiciously. "You're the only one to escape. How exactly did that happen?"

"She attacked at night, slaughtered everyone in one fell swoop. When she started ripping out people's hearts, I hid under the bodies of those who had already been killed. Pretended to be dead myself. Mercifully, the ruse worked," he answered with a pathetic look.

"So much for fortune favoring the brave," Emma mumbled."It was all I could do to survive," he tried to justify."I'm gonna let you in on a little secret," Emma said as she leaned closer to the prone man. "I'm pretty good at knowing when someone is lying to me.""I'm telling you the truth," he tried to explain."We should leave here in case Cora decides to come back," Mulan said."We should start searching for a new portal back to Storybrooke. I only got about five minutes with my wife.Not to mention, my grandson," David said as he kept watch of their surroundings. "You have a grandson," the man asked, intrigued.

"Long story," David said. Knowing that he looked way too young to be a grandfather.

"Well, I know this land well. I can guide you," the one hand man said again, trying to integrate himself within the group."You're not gonna guide us anywhere until you tell us who you really are," Emma said threateningly.

She made quick work of tying him to the tree with minimal protest from the two other females of the group. David followed Emma's instincts and kept on guard for an attack from the man.

Emma returned to standing with crossed arms in front of the man.

"Who the hell are you," she asked as she stared down her nose at the man. 

"I'm just a blacksmith," he answered automatically.

"No," she paused, "your not. I can tell when someone is lying and that's all you've done the entire time you've been with us. If you don't tell us who you are we'll just leave you here for the ogres."

A sound in the distance caused the group to turn towards that direction. 

"We need to leave. The ogres have caught the scent of the dead," Mulan said as she gripped a hand over her sword's hilt.

Emma turned back to look at the man. "It looks like you want to be left here. Have fun with the ogres."

They all turned and begun to walk away. 

"Wait! Wait. Alright, you figured me out," he said with a different accent, sounding similar to the British. 

"What's your name," Emma asked.

"Killian. Killian Jones. Most know me by Hook, though."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hook told them about Cora's plans and how they should get the golden compass before she did but now they were staring up at a large beanstalk that disappeared into the clouds overhead. Hook explained how they needed wrist bands to climb up the stalk and how he only had one extra. 

After deliberation, Emma went up with Hook. They seemed like a good team but all the while Emma couldn't seem to trust that he wouldn't betray her. So when they finally got the compass she locked him by chain before leaving. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

During this time, Snow White was finally resting after the chaos that the day had held for her. She was now laying down in her bed and falling into a restless sleep. Something that hadn't happened since she was first awoken from the sleeping curse, took place. She found herself locked within a room with no windows, red drapes, and high flames. 

Something strange happened though. There was someone else within the flames with her. Another woman. She dodged the fire and tried to get closer to the woman calling out 'hello'. 

"Hello? Who are you," Snow asked even as the flames warned her not to go further. 

Aurora got close on her side. "Aurora."

"I'm Snow White," she said in answer. 

"David and Emma's Snow," Aurora asked. 

Snow White surged forward but backed away quickly so as not to get burnt. 

"You're with my family?"

"Yes. We're in the Enchanted Forest. They're trying to figure out a way back but Cora is also trying to get to your land. We don't know how to stop her."

Snow White thought about it and finally said, "In two hours come back here. I'll go and ask someone more knowledgeable on how to prevent Cora from coming here. Give my love to my family."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had taken Leilani a long time to track down Maleficent's daughter but that was mostly because after she'd found her the first time, Lily had taken off running. She'd sped away in her car and so she'd had to use some more of the blood that Maleficent had given her and done another tracking spell on the girl.

When the girl tried to take off running again, this time she was ready and cast a quick stupify. Luckily no one was around or paying attention as she stuffed the girl into her car and took off back to Storybrooke. She'd wake Lily up in a couple of hours when she had gotten her away from anything she'd be able to identify. 

Leilani just wanted to get back to her family. She had a bad feeling about being gone from them for so long.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After two hours, Snow had finally got an answer from Rumpelstiltskin about how to handle Cora. He didn't want the woman anywhere near his daughter after she'd just dumped the babe in the woods. If anything, he'd probably try to kill Cora if she did happen to make it to Storybrooke.

Snow White laid down in the back of the pawn shop as Regina and Rumpelstiltskin stood beside her. They were hoping to avoid Cora arriving here and wanted to know if Snow could get the information to the others. 

She fell into a restless sleep and opened her eyes inside of that room again. Aurora was already waiting for her. 

"Aurora! Rumpelstiltskin said," she jumped back as flames appeared where she had just been standing. "He said that you need squid ink! It's inside his cell! Tell David to go to Rumpelstiltskin's cell and get the squid ink!"

"Okay," Aurora answered back before she was suddenly jerked awake. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After running away from the attacking zombies from Haven, Emma and David had split from Mulan and Aurora. Once they caught their breath they heard the foilage shifting behind them. They spun around, ready for attack, but Mulan was the one who stumbled out.

"They took Aurora! I promised Phillip I'd protect her," Mulan said in slight anguish. 

"We'll get her back," David said matter of factly. 

Emma wasn't so sure if she was as optimistic as her father but chose to stay quiet. 

"They were after the compass," Emma said as she pulled the compass from her pocket. "So why did they take Aurora?"

"I don't know," David answered. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hours later they were walking through the forest when Aurora came running through the trees. 

"Aurora! How'd you escape?" 

Mulan was the first to rush forward but David and Emma stayed back wondering if this was Cora impersonating another person again. 

"Hook. He let me go." She turned to Emma. "He also said that maybe this will make you learn to trust people."

Emma looked chagrined but turned her face away to watch their surroundings. 

"So, where are we going," Aurora asked. 

"We're going to Rumpelstiltskin's old prison cell," David answered her. 

Everyone stayed quiet as they made their way through the forest. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cora had tricked them. Hook had tricked them. Aurora had her heart ripped out and was being controlled. They'd been searching the prison cell for the squid ink when Aurora threw a rock and the gate shut on the prison cell. Cora used magic to take the compass out of Emma's pocket and then she disappeared with Hook.

"We've have to get Aurora's heart back," Mulan said.

"We've gotta stop Cora from traveling to our world and get Aurora's heart back," David said as he paced the cell. 

Aurora sat curled up in the corner with tears in her eyes. She hadn't meant to lock them inside. It was all her fault. Mulan stepped forward and knelt down to reassure the girl while Emma looked around the cell for anything. David was the one who found a scroll.

"Emma, I think you should see this," he called from over his shoulder. 

She walked over to where he stood and looked down with a raised eyebrow. The scroll in her father's hand said only one thing. Emma. Except that there were lines upon lines of just the one word. Her name. 

"What does that even mean," she asked.

David stared down at the parchment and had a sudden idea. "I think I know."

He moved towards the bars of the cell and brought the paper up to his chin before blowing on the letters. The ink left the page and fell upon the bars, eating them away. There was now a large hole, big enough for them to leave. 

"Come on. Let's go," David called out as he exited the cell. Mulan followed behind Emma but turned when she realized Aurora wasn't following them.

"What are you doing," she asked.

"I can't come with you. Cora has my heart. She could control me to attack you. I'll stay here."

"I'll bring back your heart," Mulan promised before turning to leave with the other two.


	18. Chapter 18

Leilani finally woke Lily up once they crossed the line into Storybrooke.

"I'd say 'Welcome to Storybrooke' but I figure that you aren't too happy to be here," Leilani said by way of conversation as soon as Lily opened her eyes.

"Why couldn't you just leave me alone," she asked.

"Your mother really wanted to meet you. But you don't seem all that shocked to learn I have magic nor about hearing about your mother. How long have you known?"

"It's been a while now. I know everything. I know Snow White and her Husband stole me from my mother and took anything that was good from me and gave me all of the bad from their own child. You bringing me here will only make me want to seek vengeance."

Leilani looked at the other woman in shock. She hadn't known all of that but she wouldn't get involved. Her only purpose for bringing Lily here was so that Maleficent could meet her child.

"I don't care what you plan on doing, it's none of my concern. The only reason I've brought you here is because your mother wants to meet you. She should be staying at my house."

"I don't want to meet the woman who gave birth to me. I want Snow White and 'Prince Charming's heads to roll," Lily snarled from her seat. 

"Do I need to stupify you again? We're almost to my house. After you have an actual conversation with Maleficent you're free to go and do whatever," Leilani said before ignoring the other woman's sputtering.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma and David engaged in a fight with Hook and Cora, Mulan and David fighting the woman while Emma dealt with Hook. She got the upper hand and knocked Hook unconscious before turning around to look at the other three fighting. Mulan had ended up unconscious as well while David fended off Cora's magical attacks. 

She saw Cora get ready to rip David's heart out and ran forward to step in the way. 

Cora's hand reached into Emma's chest with a smirk on her face in victory but when she tried to rip the other woman's heart out she couldn't. It felt as though it were anchored inside of Emma's chest. Emma in anger seemed to unleash magic she had no control over and sent Cora flying. 

Aurora's heart got flung out of her hand because of the magical clash and went flying towards the already opened portal but was suddenly snagged by Hook. Mulan roused enough to see him catch Aurora's heart.

"Here," he said as he handed it over to Mulan. 

"Why," she asked unsure. 

"No woman should live without their heart," he said to her. 

Mulan took the bag with Aurora's heart and glanced over at Emma. "Go. Go to Aurora," Emma said. 

David stood up and checked Emma for injuries before he held her hand. 

"Let's leave before the portal closes."

Hook stood back, near Cora's prone form as he watched the two jump into the portal with compass in hand. 

Cora roused from her unconscious state and watched as the portal closed behind the pair. 

"Why didn't you stop them? Now we won't be able to follow," she said angrily.

"Not exactly. A pirate always has a second plan," he answered before showing her the dried up magical bean in his grasp. 

Cora, using magic, revived the water of the lake and Hook went to retrieve the Jolly Roger. They both boarded his ship before he dropped the bean inside of the lake and created a portal.

"Next stop, Storybrooke," Hook said as the ship fell into the vortex. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Regina and Rumpelstiltskin were nervous Cora would come out of the well so they had gathered their magical reserve and cursed it. Even though Regina wasn't sure if Emma and David would come out, there was a high chance it would be her mother. She didn't want Cora anywhere near Henry nor Leilani. 

"Mom? You're not helping Emma and David, are you," Henry's voice came from behind Regina. It looked like he had gotten away from Neal at some point. Rumpelstiltskin moved a bit forward to try and put his grandchild away from the dangerous magic inside the well.

"I'm helping you, Henry," Regina answered as she spread her hands a bit.

"What are you talking about? You're gonna kill them," Henry said as he looked inside the well and noticed the green destructive magic within."Sorry, dearie," Rumpelstiltskin said as he tugged Henry away from it."Mom, what are you doing?"

"We can't let Cora come through the portal. You have no idea what she would do to us," Regina tried to explain to Henry as they continued to block the portal of the well from Henry.

"Emma and David are going to defeat her. They're the ones that are gonna come through," Henry argued back vehemently.

"Henry, your mother's right. It's gonna be Cora," Rumpelstiltskin said from the other side of Henry.

"No. It won't. Good always defeats evil," Henry said with conviction. He turned to his mother and said, "You should know that more than anyone."

"What I know is my mother will destroy everything I love, and that means you and my sister, and I can't let that happen," Regina said after she firmed her resolve.

"You can't! Stop it! You can't! You're gonna kill them! Please! No!" Henry continued to beg Regina from where Rumpelstiltskin held him back. The mass amount of magic that stayed within the well crackled as they watched it. "They're going to make it through! We have to turn it off! You're gonna kill them!"

Henry broke free of Rumpelstiltskin and ran towards the well. "Henry," Regina shouted before she gripped him around the middle and pulled him back. "What are you doing?!"

"Emma and David are going to come through. I know it," Henry said as he looked Regina in the eyes. "You said you wanted to change, to be better. This is how. You want me to have faith in you? Have faith in me."

A thunderclap from the magic echoed behind Regina as she continued staring at Henry but finally turned around to stand in front of the well. She reached out both of her hands to hover over the green mass.

"Regina," Rumpelstiltskin called out. "No!"

It was already too late to stop her though. He couldn't do anything but watch her steady back as she took the magic in to try and prevent it from killing whomever would come out of the portal. She flew backwards as the magic suddenly cut off and there wasn't any more noise.

"I'm sorry, Henry I'm sorry," Regina said as she turned to apologize to Henry for not doing it sooner. The portal was closed and no one had come out.

The sound of someone grunting and a hand reaching over the side of the well appeared in front of them.

"Mom," Henry called out just before Emma pulled herself over the ledge.

"Henry," Emma called out.

"Mom! Oh! I missed you!"

"I missed you, too. I missed you so much," Emma whispered into his hair as he hugged her tightly around the middle.

"What's going on? What happened," David asked as he noticed both Regina and Rumpelstiltskin standing in front of them.

"She saved you. She saved both of you," Henry said as he pointed to Regina.

"Thank you," Emma said to Regina."You're welcome."

Everyone turned to leave the forest and Emma, Regina and Henry walked in the back of the group. Emma turned to Regina as she laughed a bit breathlessly. "Um, your mom she's, uh ... She's a piece of work, you know?"

"Indeed I do," Regina said with a cynical smirk. "Welcome back."

"Thanks," Emma said as she still had Henry wrapped in one of her arms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leilani pulled in to her garage and shut it behind her as the car was turned off. 

"You ready to meet your mom?"

"No but I can clearly see I have no say in the matter," Lily said stubbornly.

Leilani turned to her on her seat. She really regarded the other woman and could tell that this was just some kind of cover to protect herself from rejection.

"Look. I understand where you're coming from," she said before holding a hand up to stop Lily from negating her words. "I do. I was once an orphan living in a household where I was beaten and starved for merely existing. I understand the need to protect yourself from more hurt but Maleficent had nothing to do with you being sent away. She wanted you and has been looking for you ever since. The first thing she asked when she was in her right mind again was about you and your well being. I don't know my mother personally but from what I gathered she left me alone inside of a forest. At least that's the conclusion my father and sister made. You have a chance to know your mom. Someone who genuinely loves you irregardless of your faults. Take it."

Lily shifted uncomfortably before finally gritting her teeth and nodding in mutual understanding. 

Leilani smiled happily. "Good. Now, let's go introduce you to your mother. Last time I saw her she was talking to the portraits."

Lily looked at her in confusion before she reluctantly understood that her mother was apparently crazy. She followed behind Leilani, watching the other woman's long black hair shift from side to side as she opened doors until they entered a large sitting room. Before Lily could say anything, there was suddenly a woman with curly blonde hair and bright green eyes standing in front of her. 

"Is this my daughter," she asked of Leilani without taking her eyes off of Lily. 

Leilani nodded her head 'yes'.

(Okay everyone, Lily is going to look different in my book for the sheer fact that Lily and Maleficent don't look anything like one another in the tv series. Honestly wtf? And Maleficent will have green eyes because that's her true eye color in the original story. Just imagine Lily looking like Maleficent's daughter from Descendants. :P)

Maleficent looked into the startling familiar green eyes of her daughter and noticed how much they looked alike. However, her daughter had straight blonde hair where Maleficent's was curly. Lily was a little bit shorter than Maleficent at 5'5'' but she figured that was because she was still a teenager in Dragon years and not fully grown yet. 

"You look so much like me," Maleficent said with tears in her eyes as she grabbed one of Lily's hands, the one with her star birthmark.

"There's so much I want to know about you. Will you join me for lunch? I want to hear about everything."

Lily nodded her head reluctantly with wary eyes as Leilani quickly left them by themselves. She tried to search the house for her sister but she didn't see Regina anywhere. Leilani looked down at her watch and saw that Regina was with Rumpelstiltskin at the Pawn Shop so she quickly smoked there. 

"Gina! Daddy! I'm back," she called out when she saw the both of them. 

Regina turned in shock before quickly stepping forward to give her sister a hug in relief. Leilani could tell that both of them had been stressed about something but after seeing her safe calmed a bit. Suddenly her watch made a strange noise that it hadn't made before and she looked down in confusion. 

She checked the usual names but nothing was wrong with them. That's when she looked at her mother's name and the fact that her location had finally popped up. Leilani looked up when her father asked what's wrong.

"Cora's here," she mumbled in confusion as she looked at both of them. 

Regina and Rumpel shared a knowing look of resignation.


	19. Chapter 19

Leilani could only say one thing about Belle, 'normal'. She was the very definition of what her 'Uncle Vernon' would classify as 'normal' and she disliked everything about the woman. It would've been okay if Belle 'loved' her father unconditionally but she had so many conditions on that love that Leilani figured that wasn't love at all. 

She thought back on her conversation with Regina.

*Flashback*

"That's the woman daddy loves?"

Regina looked at Leilani from the corner of her eye as she looked at the couple in the distance. Rumpelstiltskin merely looked like a man indulging an especially good child when talking with Belle. Belle didn't even act like a woman in love. She looked far too uncomfortable with the magic Leilani had shown earlier and Rumpel had had to lead her away from both Regina and his daughter. 

"Yes. The bookworm."

Leilani was uncomfortably reminded of Hermoine when Regina said 'bookworm'. She'd never been fond of those who thought book smart was everything and hoped for her father's sake that Belle was nothing like her ex-friend. 

"And they're in love," she asked as she looked at her sister in bafflement.

"Supposedly. They don't look that way though, right?"

"Honestly, had I not been told I would've thought she looked to him as a father figure or something. However, she's so uncomfortable with magic that there's no possible way she'd look to him like that. My father is the very definition of all that's 'bad' with magic. He's called 'the Dark One' for a reason... He could do so much better," she said with a grunt at the end as she crossed her arms and regarded the couple again.

*Flashback end*

It had been a week since they've been 'lovey-dovey' around Leilani and she was already sick of it. She didn't want to be rude though so she mostly visited for short periods before going to find Regina so she could complain to about the woman. Regina wouldn't judge her for disliking someone. 

Honestly, Leilani didn't dislike nor like her as a person but as someone who is supposedly supposed to love her father, she felt they didn't fit. Plus, they had been rather antsy trying to find Cora but hadn't been able to pinpoint her location which had stressed everyone out. 

Leilani had left the Pawn Shop about ten minutes prior and was currently walking the streets with her hands inside her jacket pockets. It was rather chilly today and the sky was overcast. She was wondering if it would rain when she was suddenly accosted. Her back slammed into the brick wall of the building behind her as she looked up and into the blue eyes of a very attractive man. 

They both seemed a bit stunned of one another but the man got his bearings and brought up a- hook? - to her throat. Her yellowish-green eyes narrowed dangerously on the thing before she flickered them up to the man again. 

"Is there a reason you've attacked me so blatantly," she asked the ruggedly handsome stranger. 

Killian Jones had been watching that thrice damned Pawn Shop and everything that the Dark One did for the past 6-7 days now and this woman had been close to the one he wanted to kill. He'd thought she was pretty from a distance but up close he was blown away by her beauty. Her eyes were a unique and vibrant shade of color that had him feeling slightly entranced. His only thought was that she was dangerous and he should tread carefully. 

"What do you know of the Dark One," he asked her with a rough voice. "His weaknesses."

"Oh, this is hilarious," she said conversationally as though he didn't have something sharp and pointy to her very vulnerable neck. "Do you know who you're talking to?"

Killian pressed the hook dangerously closer as he tried to think about whether he had seen the woman before. He couldn't think of a single moment where he ran across her within the Enchanted Forest. 

"Never met you before."

"Of course you've not met me before. By my clever deduction you must be the infamous 'Captain Hook'. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Leilani Potter better known as Rumpelstiltskin's daughter. At your service."

He felt that if she wasn't currently pressed against a wall she would've mocked curtsy to him but he wasn't completely sure. Killian clenched his jaw as he leant closer to the woman and growled, "Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you. I'm sure that losing his daughter would pain him greatly."

"Well, my reason would be that I can't die. I'm also not quite sure whether you'd be able to break through my scales, anyways, with your Hook."

Killian felt as though she was speaking a foreign language. He understood and heard what she said but that didn't mean it made sense. In a moment of impatience, he pressed forward with all his strength but the Hook barely made a dent in that smooth flesh beneath it. On closer inspection he could barely make out small flesh colored scales. He'd thought her skin dusted with glitter of some sort but he'd been mistaken.

"What are you," he asked as he stumbled back. 

Leilani hummed in thought as she dusted herself off and crossed her arms to regard Captain Hook. Wasn't that something? She still hadn't gotten over the fact that she lived in a town filled with characters from books and Disney movies. 

"A slightly miffed woman," she answered back after leveling her eyes on him with a slight glare. Leilani pouted a bit and asked, "You'd really harm such a pretty girl? I didn't even do anything to you... yet."

Part of the reason she hadn't harmed him or broken his hold on her was because she'd been feeling a strange sort of hum within her magic ever since he accosted her. At first, she'd thought it was her magic's basic self defense against potential danger but now that she wasn't 'in danger' she realized that it was still acting chaotic. She'd need to ask Death about it later. 

Killian looked from her to his hook before letting it drop to his side. There was nothing he could do to her it would seem. "You have me at a disadvantage it would seem. What are your plans for me?"

"Nothing," she said as she looked at him in confusion. "I'm far too busy to keep you locked up like a pet."

"I'm sure I'd enjoy being your pet, Love," he said flirtatiously by reflex to a pretty woman. Killian would've bashed his head into the wall if he wasn't trying to act as though he'd meant to say that and not purposefully put his foot in his mouth. 

Leilani smirked at him before turning away and walking back to the sidewalk she'd been walking on previously. "It was nice meeting you, Captain Hook."

"Call me Killian," he called out to her back.

"Bye, Killian," her voice drifted over to him on the wind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emma ran into Leilani as she went to go and confront Regina about killing Archie even though Graham had said that he didn't think it was Regina even with the 'evidence'. Emma had used some magic at the Pawn Shop to review the memories of Archie's dog and watched as Regina choked the life from Archie. When she explained all of this to Leilani, Leilani had a contemplative look on her face.

"Has anyone told you that Cora is here," Leilani asked after Emma had paused in conversation. Emma and Leilani had formed a rather close friendship during the past couple months of her living within Storybrooke. 

"She is?! But.. How?"

"No idea. However, her location clearly states that she's here," Leilani said as she showed Emma her watch. "I just don't know where. She seems to be using something to mask her presence from magic. I'm just getting a general location of her being within the town."

"You think it was Cora instead of Regina?"

"It seems a bit too obvious and convenient that the dog watched as 'Regina' killed Archie. Regina told me how our mother was very controlling of Regina's life and I wouldn't put it past the woman to try and destroy my sister's life so she'd need to rely on our mother again. That's just my thought though. I will say now though that I won't just let you guys go accuse Regina until there's a full investigation on all sides."

Emma knew that Leilani was being serious so she pulled back a bit to go back over all the evidence she had gathered. If Cora was in town then this whole thing had gotten more confusing. 

"Okay. I'll make sure to check every angle."

"Thanks," Leilani said before saying her goodbyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"She did it. She killed the kindest soul in this town, a man who only cared about helping," Snow White said after she heard about what happened from Emma. Her and David were standing in the kitchen as Emma sat down at the table eating dinner. She'd gotten back a bit later than usual because she'd been looking all over town for anything out of the ordinary."I promise we'll find whoever really did this," Emma said after she swallowed the bite of food in her mouth."Isn't it time you admit we already have? Regina had a fight with Archie, ruby saw her outside last night, and now her file is empty. That's... That's a lot of evidence," Snow said as she tried to reason with Emma. From past experiences she knew that Regina would never change and this wasn't completely unusual for the 'Evil Queen' to do- killing an innocent person."Maybe that's the point.""What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know how it is in fairy tale land, but in the real world, it's usually hard to find evidence. But this has been way too easy, unless someone wants us to find evidence," Emma answered as she finished the last bite of her food and stood to take her plate to the sink. Snow White took the plate from her hands and turned her back to wash it off.

David asked, "So you think she was framed?"

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time that someone has framed someone for a crime," Emma answered him as she sat down at the stool to interact with her parents.

"Who would want to frame her," Snow asked as she joined back into the conversation.

"That's a long list, present company included," David answered his wife.

"Yeah. But there's only two names on that list that would resort to killing to get what they want. However, I don't think Rumpelstiltskin would be the one, this time. Leilani told me that Cora was here."

"Cora's here," Snow asked in horror as she reached a hand to her throat in shock. "What are we gonna do? Regina may be bad but no matter how bad we may think she is, Cora's a thousand times worse."

"Leilani said that she couldn't pinpoint where Cora was at the moment so we can only wait."

"And you trust this Leilani girl? The daughter of the Dark One and Cora herself," Snow asked a bit scandalized of her daughter.

"She's never lied to me. I would know. Her and I just understand one another. If you think she's a 'villain' then you'd better put me in the same category. We're practically cut from the same cloth," Emma said shortly before standing up and grabbing her jacket. "I'm going to go help Graham out. I'm sure he would like some time to spend with Ruby."

Emma left her parents to contemplate in silence as she shut the door behind her.


	20. Chapter 20

Cora had been trying to make the town turn against her daughter in order to come to the rescue and have Regina rely on her. She wanted the best for her daughter and being a Mayor of a town with no control over the populace wasn't what she'd planned. Cora would just need to set Regina back on the correct path. 

Her daughter was currently at her office with the same girl that she'd seen her with many times before. There was something about that girl that gave her a vague feeling as though she should know her but she was positive they'd never met before. She narrowed her brown eyes thoughtfully before making a decision to show herself in front of Regina and the strange girl.

"Regina, it's been so long," Cora said as she appeared in front of the two women. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leilani had been discussing with Regina what had happened to Archie and how she thought it was their mother who had done it. From everything she'd heard about her mother, she knew she was rather controlling. 

Imagine her surprise when her watch chimed that Cora was in her vicinity right before Cora spoke. She stared at her mother in slight shock and- dare she say it, hope- but she knew something immediately upon setting eyes on Cora. Cora didn't have her heart firmly in her chest. Which meant that she merely led her decisions on logic alone. There would be no love of a mother if she didn't set her mother to rights. Plus, it had the added benefit of Cora looking at Regina as a daughter and not a pawn anymore. 

"Hello, mother. To what do I owe this visit," Regina asked with a level voice. Leilani could tell though that Regina had a lot of pain when it came to their mother. 

"Isn't it alright for a mother to visit her daughter," Cora asked as she walked casually around the room. Her dark blue dress slightly dragged along the floor and had a formal quality to it. Cora's dark brown/black hair was pinned up with a few tendrils curling gently at the back of her neck. To Leilani, Cora looked a lot younger than her true age. Then again, her father looked nothing close to his almost 400 years. 

"It would but we both know that you're not here on some casual visit," Regina said as she had stood and placed herself between Cora and Leilani. "What is your real reason for being here? For killing Archie? I know it was you, Mother."

"That bug," she asked in curiosity as she finally noticed how on edge Regina was. She took note of the protective way Regina placed herself in front of the younger woman. Cora's voice trailed off as she looked into vaguely familiar eyes. 

"You... Do I know you," she asked with a hint of confusion to her voice as she tried to step around her daughter.

"No. You don't know me."

"Lies. No, half truths," Cora said as she narrowed her eyes on the young woman further. 

Regina tried to distract their mother again by asking why she was in Storybrooke but Cora ignored her in favor of Leilani.

"I know you," Cora said as she tried to step closer. She reached out a hand as if to shape Leilani's face with her fingertips but the younger woman immediately smoked away in distress. 

Cora spun around with slightly widened eyes as she stared Regina down. "Is that.. was that your sister?"

"I don't know what you mean, Mother. I have no sister."

"Don't pussy foot around with me, Regina! Was that my daughter," Cora asked again a bit more forcefully as she had reached out and gripped Regina's throat. 

Regina's eyes watered from the force at her tender throat and swallowed convulsively before barely giving a choked 'yes' and then Cora was gone in a cloud of her magic. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leilani reappeared near the docks and walked down to the beach to try and clear her mind. In order for her to have her family together, she would need to fix Cora. No matter what, she'd need to return Cora's heart to her. She'd always found the act of ripping out a heart distasteful, almost as bad as ripping apart the soul. 

Thinking about souls reminded her of her conversation that she'd had with Death the other day, after meeting Killian.

*Flashback*

Leilani reached her home and collapsed on her bed, ignoring the clamoring that Lily and Maleficent were doing. They were going to find a place of their own apparently but it was taking some time. She discarded her shoes and sat cross-legged on top of her blanket. 

"Death," she called out to the empty room. It was almost as though all the light in the room disappeared and centered around the dark mass known as Death when it materialized near her bed. 

Yes Missstress? How may I ssserve you? It asked as it swayed as though a breeze were blowing through it's cloak. 

"Do you know why my magic reacted strangely to Captain-Hook- call-me-Killian?"

If Death had a face, Leilani was sure that it would've had a slight frown with a cocked head as it seemed to view something she couldn't see. 

Yess Misstresss.

"Can you explain it to me since us mere mortals don't know?"

You're not mortal, Mistresss.

"That was beside the point. Can you please explain to me why my magic was reacting to Captain Hook so strangely? Please," she tacked on the end to show she was being considerably nice about not demanding the answers of Death.

Your ssoulss are complete together. Apart they cry out for the other. Laymenss termss he'ss your ssoulmate.

"Those exist? I thought that was fantasy garbage," Leilani said in slight exasperation. "Plus, aren't I immortal? It's impossible for me to be with someone who isn't."

Who ssaid he wasss mortal? Sssilly Missstressss.

Leilani huffed before flouncing backwards onto the bed. "So I have a soulmate.. My soulmate is Captain Hook? My soulmate wants to kill my father. . Great."

*Flashback End*

Leilani walked along the beach and allowed the waves to lull her into a sense of tranquility. It just seemed that everything had been going good but came crashing around her. She just never caught a break. There was a large rock that she decided to climb up and sit down on as she watched the waves lapping at the shore. The sun was beginning it's slow descent across the sky and nearing the line of the ocean. 

"What are you thinking about, love," came a voice from her right. 

She'd been so lost in thought that someone had snuck up on her. Leilani turned and stared at Killian incomprehensibly. She was honestly shocked that he would choose to talk to her when his 'mortal enemy' was her father. 

"Does it matter," she asked as she tilted her head curiously at him. Leilani honestly wanted to know if he really was curious about what her thoughts were about. 

"It does if it makes you forget everything else around you," he pointed out as he pulled out a flask and tipped it back to take a swig as he stared out at the ocean alongside her. 

Leilani pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them as she rested her chin on top of her knee and turned to stare at his side profile. 

"I've got a lot to think about."

"Does some of those thoughts have anything to do with how ruggedly handsome I am," he asked with a cocky smirk as he turned slightly to look into her probing eyes. 

"They may or they may not. You'll never know," she said before reaching out and grabbing the flask from his hand and tilting her head back to take a sip. It was whiskey. She wasn't surprised. 

Leilani handed it back without a thank you before she stood up and dusted off the back of her pants. 

"This has been pleasing but I should really be getting back," Leilani told him as she jumped down to the sand. 

Killian quickly followed behind her and reached out to grab her hand. He wasn't sure why but he didn't want her to leave. Leilani turned around quickly in surprise which sent her black locks fluttering around her and her bright yellowish-green eyes to widen in slight shock. 

"Unhand me," she told him expectantly.

"No. I'd rather like to hold your hand a bit longer," Killian said. He wasn't entirely sure why he felt the need to flirt with her or keep her close to him but he wasn't going to question it. 

"Are you flirting with me," she asked in slight amusement. 

"Are you receiving," he asked in turn. 

"I'm honestly unsure if this is a good thing or not. Killian, you want to kill my father. I won't let any harm come to my family. That means we're enemies in my book. I'm pretty sure that means you don't flirt with the enemy," Leilani said in exasperation as she turned to fully look at him with slightly saddened eyes. 

Killian didn't understand why she was sad by what she said but he knew he didn't like seeing her that way. He went to step forward but Leilani took a step back to keep the distance between them. 

"I really should be going. And you've got plans of killing my father to hash out. Goodbye Killian," Leilani said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. His hand passed straight through it, grasping at nothing. He felt as empty as his hand. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Leilani disappeared Killian got himself drunk and walked along the streets of Storybrooke with confusing thoughts. That's when he saw that chit that the Dark One thinks himself to be in love with walking out of the Library. 

Although Belle and Rumpelstiltskin had known that Cora and Hook were in town they'd both been under the assumption he'd try and figure out ways to get Leilani since he seemed to think she was closest to the Dark One. That's why Belle was alone when she was suddenly knocked unconscious and taken back to the hidden ship. 

Killian left her alone in a room before going off to change his clothes that had gotten a bit dirty. Belle woke up and looked around where she was. She heard noises coming from a slight vent looking thing near her left. Belle opened it to find Archie. 

"Archie? But I thought you were dead," she exclaimed.

"Belle? You've got to go get help. I'm injured. I can't get out of here."

"Okay. I'll go get help," Belle said as she nodded her head and turned to escape out the door. Hook was standing there though.

"You! Have you not hurt Rumple enough," she shouted as she came face to face with him.

"Oh. I've hurt him," Killian asked with a raised brow.

"You stole his wife," she said with conviction.

"Tell me something, love. If a woman comes to you and begs you to take her away, is that theft?"

"Why would she leave him," she asked stubbornly.

"Because he was a coward. And because she loved me."

"I'm sorry she died, but vengeance? Vengeance won't bring her back."

Belle took a cautious step back from the looming man as she tried to reason with him about his plans of revenge.

"Died? Like it was some kind of accident. Is that what he told you," Killian asked with a slight chuckle. The audacity of the man to say Milah had 'accidentally' died.

"He well, yeah, he didn't say," she stuttered a bit in confusion.

"No, of course not. Of course he'd leave out the most important detail of her passing," he said as he stepped forward, closer to her personal space."And, uh what would that be," she asked as she took another hesitant step back.

"He killed her. He ripped out her heart, and he crushed it right in front of me." Killian narrowed his eyes at Belle as he finished saying so. He'd planned on killing the girl earlier but now this? this was maybe better than he'd originally planned.

"No," she said in denial."Oh, yes," he said in glee as he watched the look of horror and disgust cross her face.

"No," she shouted as she shook her head.

"Yes. He will do anything anything to hold on to his power. Why do you think anyone who's ever gotten close to him has either run away or been killed? Now what makes you think you're any different? Tell me something, darling. Why would you want to fight for a man like that?"

"Because I still see good in him. Because I believe he's changed. Because his heart is true," she said with a stubborn tilt to her chin. "And yours? Yours is rotten."

Belle pushed past Killian and he allowed her to go with a slight smirk on his face. He wondered how long it would take for the woman to finally see that the Dark One wasn't a 'better man' just because she said he was.

His thoughts went back to Leilani at the thought of the Dark One. Maybe if he didn't seek out her father's death and instead just his misery if she'd go on a date with him.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (I honestly don't like Belle. Sorry not sorry. I say this as a personal opinion and as a writer. Therefore, I don't think I'll ever write something from Belle's point of view and how she feels towards Rumpelstiltskin. Their relationship always was weird to me. Either the actors didn't portray them correctly or the characters were meant to make everyone feel uncomfortable lol. I don't know which but as the author of this fanfic I'm booting her to the curb. Also, Cora looks younger in my fanfic. I find it weird that her and Killian slept together with her looking like he could be his mother or grandma. *shudders* Think of young woman Cora but a few age lines. She still looks extremely beautiful for her age.

Leilani noticed the tension that sprang up between her father and Belle but she didn't say anything about it. Honestly, she wasn't too sad to see her go. Plus, she was busy trying to find her mother's heart. She figured it would be within her possessions but even Regina wasn't sure where she left those. 

Luna had made it a project of hers to 'rehabilitate' Jefferson apparently. Leilani had only found out about it because Luna seemed to have been absent a lot more than usual. Although she had made it a habit to walk around the forests at all sorts of odd hours, even for her it was a lot of missing time. Apparently Jefferson and her just 'clicked'. Leilani had it on good authority, Death, that Luna and Jefferson were actually soulmates. It had even helped Leilani to identify soulmates. 

She'd noticed it with Snow White and David as well. When two soulmates get closer together their hearts shine bright gold/white. It was actually a different form of sight than what Leilani usually used, similar to her soul-sight. 

Gaining control of her powers had been a touch and go type of battle since her original Death relinquished control on them. She still had moments where the amount of strain was too much and Death would need to intervene but the time in between was lengthening. 

She'd actually decided to help around town whenever she had free time that she didn't know what to do with. The other day she'd helped Archie take care of Pongo because he'd injured his leg and hadn't wanted to be healed by magic. 

Leilani had quickly popped in to greet her father and noticed the tension in the air so immediately escaped. She found herself pausing in the middle of the sidewalk not knowing where to go. 

It was rather windy today and she'd opted for a large coat lined with neon green fur to insulate the inside. She still sported her trademark dragon hide pants and knee length black buckled boots. Inside of the boots were two knives in case of emergencies but she hadn't needed them so far. Past battle instincts demanded her to be armed though. 

Those same instincts warned her that she was being followed. 

Her eyes looked about inconspicuously as she proceeded on her way. She tried to act nonchalant but as soon as her watch chimed she stopped walking. 

"Well, I'd say this was a pleasant surprise. . However, knowing that you have no heart I'll skip the necessities," She said as she chose to lean against the wall of the nearby building. Leilani didn't look anywhere in specific because she knew her mother would come to her. 

Cora eventually moved to stand next to her. When she reached a hand out to touch Leilani's face, Leilani snapped her head to glare at her.

"I'm not sure what you think you're doing or why you have a right to be near me but I'm willing to listen. I was told that I was left in the Forbidden Forest of this world. Did you leave me to that fate.. Mother," she asked. Cora seemed to flinch a bit at the word 'mother' coming out of Leilani's mouth.

"It's you," Cora breathed out. She seemed to be in shock. "I searched for you for years."

Leilani paused in her glaring to actually look at Cora. It seemed like she was telling the truth.

"Let's have this talk somewhere else. Somewhere quiet."

Cora seemed to agree and held out a hand for Leilani to take. Leilani could protect herself so she wasn't too concerned with Cora doing her harm. She laid her smaller hand in her mother's and was whisked away. They arrived on the Jolly Roger. 

Killian was just walking out of his room with his shirt haphazardly put on and a pair of leather pants still not tied. His eyes bugged out when he saw the two women together but quickly collected himself by leaning against the doorway with crossed arms.

Cora, noticing his attention on her daughter, narrowed her eyes and said, "Leave."

"This is my ship, love," he said with a sly smirk as he turned his eyes towards Cora. 

Cora narrowed her eyes and gathered magic in her hand but before she could do anything to Killian Leilani stepped in between them. 

"We can just use another room," Leilani said before glancing over her shoulder and looking at Killian in disapproval. 

She noticed another door that led to the lower deck and began walking towards it. Cora hesitated but followed behind her as she shot a glare at Hook again. 

Leilani sat down on a chair while Cora conjured one to sit down in front of her.

"I'd like to hear your side of the story. It's not like my father knows what happened," she said in slight disapproval. Cora had hidden the truth of her pregnancy from Rumpelstiltskin which could've been an added protection to the unborn babe. 

Cora stared off slightly in the distance and seemed to be trying to figure out what to say. When she looked back at that time she knew she had been devastated but now she couldn't understand why.

While Cora was trying to recollect the past, Leilani was sending out her magic in search of what she'd been trying to find for the past couple of days. When it latched on to the beating pulse of magic she snapped her fingers and had it appearing within her grasp. Before Cora could even register what was happening, Leilani had shoved her palm and the thing within her grasp, into Cora's chest. 

Cora gasped as she hunched over in shock. She placed a hand over the wildly frantic pounding of her heart. It felt like it would lurch right back out of her chest. 

Leilani quickly added her own magic to her mother's heart and made it impossible for anyone to rip it from it's rightful place. She dusted her hands off and regarded her mother.

"Now we can have a proper conversation, Mother."

Cora looked up through her mess of curls that had been dislodged when she'd hunched forward as though to protect the place her daughter had touched. Leilani looked into warm brown eyes that had filled with unshed tears. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rumpelstiltskin didn't understand why he couldn't just have a 'happily ever after'. He'd thought that once him and Belle were together again that everything would resolve itself. It hadn't been what he expected though. 

When Leilani could find the opportunity when Belle wasn't around him, she'd ask him questions that had him truly thinking. He had centuries of experience- pain mostly and anger- that was his entire existence. She had not even a quarter of the years experience he had and at times he found himself treating her similar to how he treated his children. 

One of the questions his daughter had asked him was if he was latching on to Belle because she was someone who had 'professed' her love to him. He'd have to slightly agree that being the Dark One left much to be desired in the way of conquests. Many had lust after his power and there had been once where he had thought there was true love but Belle was the one that stuck around. 

Now though, he was honestly slightly baffled with how he was acting. He'd never tried to be the 'hero' and it wasn't in him to be one. The fact that Belle wanted him to be this 'good' person had begun to rub him the wrong way. It didn't help that he had the dark power within him constantly whispering terrible things about Belle. There'd only been the one time it had stayed quiet around a woman and that had ended rather terribly. 

He'd been tricked that time and he promised to never allow himself to love so completely again. Many would think it were Milah but she'd felt like a young school boy crush in comparison to that betrayal. It didn't help that the sting seemed to last even today. 

Rumpelstiltskin was sitting in the back of his shop tinkering with some potions that Leilani had asked for when Belle had come walking in.

"I thought you said you'd stop this, Rumpel," she said as she saw what he was doing.

He looked up and saw what looked like betrayal, disgust and hurt in her eyes. It was honestly confusing to him why those emotions were present. 

Little miss perfect, here to valiantly sacrifice herself to the beast and seek to change us. I know it angers you that she continues. Why don't we just make her voice disappear.

Rumpel ignored the other him that sat on top of his table swinging it's legs childishly. The Dark One giggled at his blatant disregard even as Rumpelstiltskin attempted to figure out what to do with Belle. He gave a weary sigh as he turned his attention completely to her.

"What do you wish me to say, Belle? Leilani asked it of me so I'm doing so."

"So because your daughter asked you to do something that you know I don't like.. instead of trying for me you would rather please her," she asked petulantly.

"She's my daughter, Belle."

It was the only answer he would give. One that made perfect sense even as it broke Belle's heart that she thought was completely Rumpelstiltskin's. Her eyes filled with tears. 

"Fine. Then I don't think we should be together. Until you can figure out where we stand I'll go find accommodations elsewhere."

If it were in the past he might've tried and stopped her or begged forgiveness but he honestly couldn't muster up the energy. His magic didn't seem to like her at all and it would always choose Leilani over Belle. He watched with cool eyes as she disappeared from the Pawn Shop and returned to doing what he was originally doing. One of the potions had been messed up because of the disruption so he would need to restart that one.

He'd been in the process of clearing up the mess he'd made when he felt the Dark One's attention snap to the south. Towards the ocean. Something was calling them but he refused to heed it. Whatever it was was making his magic act strangely. It could be a trap and he didn't dare fall for one of those. Anything that made the Dark One take notice was usually bad news. 

He'd just need to wait and see.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I enjoyed writing this chapter. You get the background of Cora and what has happened to her and why. I am unsure if some of this happened in OUAT. I can't remember the Zelena thing but I wanted it for my fanfic so I stuck with it. 😊

Cora took a shuddering breath to steady her racing heart as she stared at her daughter. Her daughter! She had looked for her but could never have guessed that someone had transported her to another world. 

Leilani sat calmly staring back at Cora as her mother tried to process what she had just done. 

"Are you feeling more yourself now?"

Cora nodded her head a bit shakily. 

"You're so beautiful," Cora croaked out as she stared at her daughter.

Staring at Leilani reminded her of the mess she had made with her two other daughters.

"Thank you," Leilani said as she looked away a little embarassed. She didn't take compliments to we'll due to her upbringing.

She cleared her throat. "Will you tell me what happened, now?"

Cora pulled herself together and sat up straight with a slight wince at the pain before pushing her wild curls behind her.

"Yes. You deserve the truth even if you hate me at the end of it."

Leilani gave her mother her full attention as she conjured a tea set and begun making them both a cup.

"Your Father and I had a deal. I would bare him a child for his help to become a Queen. I.. I fell in love with him and had begun to change my mind on marrying Prince Henry but I was worried for my child, you. I already had another child who was taken from me by my father to be sold for money. He snatched your older sister from my arms and locked me within a small room until he received the money and she was gone.

I was worried for you because I wasn't sure if Rumple returned my feelings. So, I told the King and Prince Henry I found a way to procure more gold but I needed to go away for a couple months. They believed me and I took away the spindle in order to create more gold to help me survive until you were born.

The day you were born was one of my happiest days. You were the child of the man I loved and it was my greatest joy to have you. Even if it was bloody painful."

She paused to take a sip of the tea that Leilani had passed to her.

"This is good tea," she mumbled to her daughter self conciously.

"It's made from plants that I grow myself and blend together," Leilani spoke automatically even as her mind still reeled.

"How did I end up here," she finally asked.

"I don't know," Cora said even as tears formed in her eyes at the heart ache she still felt.

"The midwife was tending to me and had set you in the bassinet but when she turned back you were gone! I looked everywhere for you. I dragged myself from bed even though my body was far from healed and ran through the streets trying to find the person who had stolen you. My baby!

After a month of not finding you I feel as though something snapped inside of me and I ripped my heart from my chest. It felt like some form of magic and my only guess is it had something with the deal I had made with Rumplestiltskin. Do you know how his magic works," she asked.

Leilani thought about it a moment before responding. "A price is paid if the deal isn't fulfilled. Usually father would be able to track down the person for the deal but if someone kidnapped me and brought me to this dimension, his magic couldn't reach that far so it's possible that it snapped back on both you and father to exact the price."

"Yes. That is my thoughts regarding it," she paused to take another sip as she begun to get uncomfortable with the rest of her story.

"I'm not a good person, darling. I've killed many people without remorse. I look back on what I've done and although I feel uncomfortable with the amount, I don't regret it. The only person I regret killing is your younger sister's true love. I should never have forced her to marry a King she held no feelings for. There are many things I regret regarding your sister but I suppose it's her I should be saying this to."

Leilani chewed on her lower lip. She was a bit uncomfortable with the 'killing people' thing but considering she was now the person who literally shuttled the dead she pushed past her little bit of morals. Standing up, she walked towards her wary mother and kneeled down in front of her before laying her head in her lap.

"I understand. I apologize for jumping to conclusions so soon. I also think you should speak to Gina and Daddy," she quickly shush ed her mom as she continued, "I don't want daddy to look at you as though you were vermin for something you didn't do. Plus, I'm on good authority that you guys are meant for one another."

Leilani had noticed the slight golden shine to her mother's heart when she had spoken her father's name.

At that moment Hook stepped into the room with his arms crossed over his chest and a raised brow.

"You're Cora's daughter as well, love?"

Leilani gave him a cheeky grin as she pulled herself up from Cora's lap. "Were you listening at the door, you cheeky bastard?"

"I'll have you know my parents were married.. for like a second maybe. Don't change the subject."

"Yes. Cora is my mum. Is that a problem?"

"No wonder you're so bloody gorgeous. You took the best parts, did ya," he asked as he stepped closer to her and seemed to forget Cora was in the room.

Cora watched as her daughter teased Killian and Killian flirted shamelessly with her daughter. There was definitely something there that she probably shouldn't think about considering she had slept with the damn man which she was currently regretting terribly.

She cleared her throat and watched Leilani jump a bit and spin around, giving her back to a very dangerous man as if she trusted the fool. Cora's eyes widened in shock before composing herself.

"Maybe we should go talk with your sister? I'm sure they will have sent a search party out to find you by now."

"Okay," Leilani agreed as she stepped towards Cora and away from Hook.

Killian had lifted a hand as though to touch her hair but aborted that action, not before Cora could see it though.

"I'll be back later," Cora said but was suddenly cut off by her daughter. "Would you like to stay with me and Luna instead? Maleficent and Lily found a place with daddy's help so it's back to just Luna and myself."

Cora thought about it before agreeing reluctantly.

"It's safe. Trust me. I won't let anyone take actions against you. Even if you were in the wrong. You're my mum and I'll take your safety into account."

"Thanks darling."

Leilani smoked them away towards her home after giving Killian a slight grin and a jaunty wave.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm so excited!! We're getting to good stuff. Plus I think I should bring Draco in soon. Just because I would find it mildly amusing to watch as his snobbery clashed with self righteous individuals who view the world with rainbow glasses. 😂😂😂

Emma was sitting at her desk sorting through paperwork when the phone beside her begun to ring. It was strange since that phone hardly ever rang since the town woke up from the curse. 

"Storybrooke Police, this is Emma speaking," she answered. Usually a deputy would state '911 what's your emergency' but everyone knew one another here so she wasn't to concerned. 

"Emma, we have a bit of a situation," came Graham's voice over the phone. 

She was confused on why he called this phone instead of her cellphone but brushed it off in order to figure out what was going on. 

"What kind of a situation? Like, Sneezy losing his memory after leaving town, kind of situation? Or...?"

"Similar but worse in a sense. Now that the curse has been lifted, the mundanes of this world can now freely enter within the limits. We've had aN outsider crash his car just within the town limits. We transported him to the Hospital. He's currently in critical condition. Everyone is deliberating on what to do. Can you come down here," he asked as she could begin hearing voices arguing in the background.

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

Emma hung the phone up and quickly slid on her red leather jacket before grabbing the keys to her yellow bug and hurrying out of the station. When she arrived it was a complete War Zone. Mary-Margaret and Davideo stood on one side with a small group of people while on the other side stood Regina and the Director of the Hospital. They were arguing the merits of letting the man die or saving his life. 

Regina's side said to let him succumb to his injuries due to the possibility that he had seen any of the magical creatures within the Forest, not to mention anything strange he may come across if healed. Mary-Margaret's side thought it immoral and unethical to allow another human being to die when they could save them. 

"You've got no idea what kind of person this man is! He could be a mass murderer or a rapist and you're suggesting us save him?! If it were I on that operating table you'd be standing in my spot voting for my very reasoning this moment," Regina shouted in exasperation and frustration. 

Snow White had always been little miss goody two shoes when it came to the whole peace love and prosperity propaganda she spouted. Regina would never believe the innocent act, not since she had gotten her true love killed. 

Mary-Margaret flushed in anger but didn't open her mouth to say anything in response due to the fact that it was kind of true. 

David stepped forward, blocking her with his own body. "It doesn't matter about these make believe scenarios! There is a real man in danger of dying right now. We don't have time arguing what-ifs."

Emma decided to hurry and step forward to stop another onslaught of arguements with Graham be code her. 

"Okay everyone, settle down. Let's come to a compromise, okay? First, let's save this man," she said and was quickly cut off with righteous agreement from her parents side. Emma gave them a stern look to silence them. "Then when he is completely healed we will escort him out of town. This way there's no need to worry about him seeing something he shouldnt."

There was some grumbling but everyone quickly agreed. The Doctor in charge reluctantly left to go prepare for surgery as the others finally settled down and begun leaving now that a solution was agreed upon. Emma sighed to herself as she relaxed against one of the Hospital's walls. 

"Henry wants to spend the day with you tomorrow, Ms. Swan. I expect to see you at the house at 8 a.m. sharp." With that final statement, Regina turned on her heel and left. 

Graham walked up to Emma as he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. 

"My apologies, Emma. It's hard to talk sense into people whom I remember were my Queen and Princess once upon a time."

"It's alright, Graham. It's rather easy to get Mary-Margaret and David to see reason since they're my parents. Regina usually subsides if she thinks something is going the way she wants. That's why I suggested a compromise."

Graham nodded his head in agreement even though it still baffled him how Emma could stand up to the threat of the Evil Queen staring her down with death in those brown orbs if she didn't agree to whatever she demanded. 

\-----------------------------------

Rumplestiltskin sat in contemplative silence as he felt as though something had lifted from his shoulders and regained something he had unknowingly lost. His magic was working in strange ways again. He quickly finished up the potion that Leilani had need of and placed the last vial within his expanded pocket. 

The store was quickly locked up as he made his way towards his daughter's house. Something was in the air and he wasn't sure if he felt excited or wary of the tugging at his heart and magic. It was difficult to ignore the Dark One as he had become spastic the closer Rumplestiltskin got to Leilani's. 

"Would you shut up, you obnoxious imp," he drawled at the pest that his magic had taken shape into. 

"Can't you feel it, fool?!

What was lost, will now be found. 

For one to two to one once more, you'll finally be whole all the way to your core. 

A man who's lost what can never be found, something of importance will be taken without a sound. 

Never fear, Magic will steer, don't let slip a tear. 

How will you choose, Dear?"

The Dark One begun to spin and giggle after his nonsensical poem. Rumplestiltskin knew this was something significant but for the life of him, he had absolutely no clue what was going through the thing's head. 

He sighed wearily as he limped while using his cane and passed by the scared pedestrians after giving them a shark-like grin. It didn't take to long to reach Leilani's house. Her home pulsed with some type of enticing magic that felt as though it were a siren's call. He frowned and contemplated whether it would be better to wait for Leilani to come to him instead. 

Gritting his teeth, he pushed down the nerves and limped towards the door before ringing the bell. It didn't take long for it to open and become accosted by the fluffy white hair of Luna as she gave him a joyous hug. 

"Hello, Second Father," she said dreamily. "My sister is in the receiving room. Would you like some company or tea to calm the nerves."

Her voice was soft and held an odd lilt to it in places that seemed as though it wouldn't sound right usually but she somehow made work. 

"Some tea, dearie," he responded as he got over the shock of anyone giving him a hug willingly that wasn't blood related. 

Luna beamed at him with now focused eyes. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine. You're not in danger. We would never allow someone hostile near you intentionally."

Rumplestiltskin relaxed a bit at her reassuramce, even as the tugging had gotten stronger the more he stepped into the house. His feet led him to the sitting room after Luna had skipped off to the kitchen. It took him a second of staring to understand where the tugging was coming from as he stood in the doorway in slight shock. 

"Cora," he asked in confusion. 

Cora was sitting next to Leilani with their hands clasped together. Both were smiling while Cora had a few happy tears trailing down her cheeks. Her honey brown eyes shifted from Leilani at the call of her name to stare right into the gold of Rumple's own. 

"Rumple," she gasped out as her eyes widened in shock. 

"Dad! Let me explain," Leilani shouted as she stood quickly and placed her between her two parents. 

Rumplestiltskin gritted his teeth as he cocked an eyebrow. 

"Out with it, dearie."


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I think my sister got me sick so I apoligize if this comes off as crap.   
I get so frustrated writing these kinds of chapters because I've gotta write a lot of dialogue and I think I suck at dialogue, well writing in general, so I always second guess on whether I should continue writing. It's frustrating but I push through it most of the time.

"I've brought tea," came the wispy voice of Luna's as she entered the room in a swirl of colors from the dress she was wearing. 

Rumple was flabbergasted. Hadn't she been wearing something else when she had answered the door? He pushed that from his mind as she placed the tea set down at the coffee table before turning and grabbing his unused hand to lead him to the open chair. 

Leilani rubbed her sweaty hands on her pants due to nerves. She knew her father thought her mum left her in the forest or had given her up and was inclined to be hostile. It also hadn't slipped her mind how he had told her about Zelena being left in the forest by her. Cora must've told him such a story to hide her heart. It was time to get the facts straight between the both of them. 

With that thought, Leilani quickly cast a spell that would essentially lock all of them in the room together until they spilled the truth to each other. She sent a quick sorry to Luna with her eyes when Leilani noticed her blue eyes had focused on her own. 

Before her father could demand what she had just done she spoke. "I'm not sorry about casting that spell. You both need to speak the truth to one another. Before you attempt to walk out of the room, this spell won't allow you to leave until you tell one another the truth. Things you've hidden from one another. Unfortunately, it also applies to Luna and I."

Rumple glared stubbornly at his cane, wondering if he would be able to destroy the spell. He quickly dashed that thought because he was concerned on whether it would hurt his daughter. Although he was mad at her at the moment for forcing this situation, he would never hurt her. 

Luna smiled brightly from the arm of the chair where she sat beside Rumplestiltskin. 

"I see creatures that nobody else can see that help me see into the future. The carpet does match the drapes."

Throughout her talking, Leilani went from understanding to baffled and shocked. Her emotions cleared up when she saw the confusion on her mother's face and the horror slowly dawning on her father's. It was her dad that made Leilani completely lose it. She had just taken a sip of her tea as she glanced at her dad and begun to choke on its contents. 

"That is more than I ever wanted to know about someone I see as another daughter," he muttered with slightly wide eyes. Luna giggled as she leaned over to hug him for his 'daughter' comment. Even if he hadn't meant to say that out loud. 

Rumple sent a glare without heat to his daughter who had finally stopped choking and was now just giggling hysterically. 

"Yes. Hilarious. Now, care to tell me why your mother is sitting on your couch?"

That sobered Leilani up. She looked at her dad in concern as she answered. 

"I think the deal you struck with her caused payment to be taken from the both of you when I was stolen. Mum didn't abandon me in the forest. I was stolen from her."

"Is that what she said, dearie," he sarcastically asked. "Don't be fooled by her. She's done it before. There's no heart left in her."

Rumplestiltskin felt his chest and magic lurch when he said such hateful things about Cora but he was telling the truth.

"I have never left any child in a forest! If you're speaking of Zelena, my father sold her and I could never find her! Someone stole Leilani from her bassinet as the Midwife was caring for me. I searched everywhere! The magic within our deal must've known she was no longer part of our world as it immediately warped my mind into ripping my heart out."

Rumple stared at Cora as though he had never seen her before. 

"I forcefully placed her heart back within her chest, Daddy. There's no way for her to remove it again. Which reminds me. Where's your Dagger? I'll send it into the in-between," Leilani spoke up before either of her parents could speak. 

He stared at his daughter for a moment before smoke appeared on the coffee table and revealed his dagger. His eyes stayed on Cora but she never moved towards it nor did she take her eyes off of him. He couldn't understand what had changed. There was a strange connection that pulled him towards her but he resisted. 

Leilani carefully picked up the dagger and noticed her father shiver out of the corner of her eyes before she sent a pulse of magic to wrap around it and sent it into her servant's realm. 

"Why did you tell me that you left Zelena within the Forest?"

"You're the Dark One. You came to me to make a deal. I had no assurance that you would help me find my child without a steeper price than your child. I was afraid you'd take Leilani from me. I told you I left Zelena within a Forest, knowing you'd be drawn to expound on her pain in knowing I was such a hateful mother. She would seek your help in mastering magic. It was the best I could do for her. I had hoped she would try to find me to seek the truth or even just revenge. Sadly, by the time I met her, my heart had already been ripped from me."

"I would have done anything for you! You should've told me the truth! You betrayed me!"

"I didn't betray you," Cora shouted as she stood from where she sat. "I love you!"

Everyone kind of froze at her declaration. More so, Rumplestiltskin and Cora seemed to not even be breathing. 

"You love me," he growled angrily. "You dun' e'en know me anymore."

"You're still the man I know and love. Just because some twit tried to shape and mold you into something you're not doesn't mean I don't know who you truly are, Rumple," Cora said angrily with fire dancing in her honey eyes. 

He wanted to defend Belle but he was scared of what he would actually say due to the spell so he kept his lips shut. 

Leilani grabbed her mum's hand and coaxed her to sit back down as she poured her a cup of tea alongside her dad's. Cora inhaled the herbal blend and took a sip. Her muscles seemed to melt into the couch at whatever had been added to it. 

"What is that," she asked as she took another sip. 

"It's just a mild muscle relaxant," Luna answered as she drank her own cup. "Hatter says it's even better with this special blend of mushrooms he has. But won't let me sample it since I already see things that aren't there."

Luna pouted as she told them. Leilani stared at the ceiling as though she hadn't just heard that her sister's bonded apparently drinks tea with shrooms. That would explain the madness that could rival the Blacks. 

She felt the spell begin to splinter around them and guessed that it was enough to rekindle some form of relationship between her parents. 

"Do you want to stay for dinner," she asked her dad. 

He seemed to think about it before reluctantly nodding his head in agreement. 

"Good! Luna and I will go prepare. You two stay here," she shouted excitedly before running out the door and dragging Luna behind her.

Rumple stared at the empty doorway and glanced back at Cora who seemed to be having trouble keeping a smile off her face. 

"Is it just me or is our daughter trying to set us up," he asked with concern. It was particularly difficult being in the same room as Cora when the girls had been there but was twice as difficult with them gone. 

"It would appear so," she said with a small chuckle as she took another sip of tea to calm her nerves.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello my beautiful Readers!
> 
> Hope you are all staying safe and healthy during this time. Considering I'm hugely Agoraphobic and never leave the house due to panic attacks.. well, it feels like just a normal day for me. Although, I have to say, the mass hysteria over toilet paper has been mildly amusing but quickly turned to anger when I realized that I had to use paper towels because people decided that they needed a shit ton of toilet paper for the mass diarrhea pandemic that is apparently on the horizon. 
> 
> It has been a while since I wrote a new chapter for either my Fanfics and that was mostly because I kept having disjointed images running through my head of the two mashed together. It was frustrating. Finally I had a full Chapter thought out and it just so happened to be for this Fanfic. Hope you enjoy!

Emma sighed as she leaned back in her chair at the Police Station. She'd just broke into the guy's phone who was currently recovering from surgery. Everything checked out so far. He didn't seem like someone who had specifically come to Story Brooke to cause trouble. Emma was still worried about him seeing anything out of the ordinary though. The sooner he left the better for everyone. She was shocked that she could actually understand Regina's concern regarding the stranger. 

No one had expected that the ward surrounding the town and hiding it from the Muggles would cease to work once the curse was broken. She was thinking about visiting Leilani about her opinion on how to fix it. If she could.

Graham walked in scratching his cheek in thought. 

"What's up," Emma asked as he walked towards their coffee machine.

"You mean aside from the mass panic that the town has succumbed to because an outsider is here? Nothing."

Emma's lip twitched in humor at his sarcasm.

"Have you been calming them down this entire time?"

"I wouldn't say calming down, exactly. More like assuring them that the issue will be resolved as soon as humanly possible and there shouldn't be anything to worry about. It may have been best to just allow the man to pass," he mumbled before taking a few gulps of his pitch black coffee.

"That might be the kind of way you lived back in the Enchanted Forest but here on Earth we don't allow someone to die in front of us if we have the means to help them," she said as she gave him a pointed look before standing and grabbing her red leather jacket and keys. 

Graham realized that she was leaving the station and raised his eyebrow in inquiry. 

When Emma reached the hall leading to the exit she shouted, "I'm going to go see Leilani and see if she has any ideas on how to fix the wards surrounding the town!"

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leilani was cleaning up the table of dishes from the nice dinner that she had with both her parents and Luna when her eye caught a movement to her left. Her father was hobbling a bit and grabbed hold of the door.

She scrunched up her eyes in confusion before placing the plates back on the table and walking towards him.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Dearie?"

"Why is your leg still bothering you? Why haven't you fixed it?"

"It was like this before I got me magic. When I'm the Dark One I'm fit as a fiddle."

Leilani still was confused about it and so asked, "If you're fine during those times then I'm confused how you're still injured without all the Dark Magic spread throughout your body."

"It's an equivalent exchange for the power. I've tried to heal it but it never works," he answered with a bit of exasperation at the entire situation.

"Have you tried potions," she asked as she moved forward to lend him a hand."

"Bone mending potions won't work, Dearie. It completely shattered and healed without aid. The bones are set the way they are."

"Wait, so you've never actually vanished the bones and regrown them before," she asked in shock as she finally got him to sit in a chair next to her Mother. 

Luna came twirling into the room wearing a sparkly gauzy pink fairy dress that seemed to fling glitter and light everywhere she spun. In her hands she held a tray of biscuits and tea with a strange mouse wearing a red hat sprawled on it's back next to to one of the chocolate chip ones.

Rumple glanced at the rat and sneered before glancing away and pretending the creature didn't exist.

"I didn't even know that there was a potion for regrowing entire bones," he commented as he glanced back at his daughter.

"Do you want to try it tonight? We should do it when you're getting ready for bed since I'll need to restrain your movements during the process."

"That's fine. Do you think your brother will be alright with me staying here though," he asked.

"It's not his house," she said forcefully. Conveying that 'I don't give two fucks what he thinks, he'll just have to live with it' without actually saying the words out loud.

"Here's some tea, Queen Mother Heart," Luna said cheerfully as her eyes seemed to be looking at something on Cora's shoulder... or maybe she was just looking at her neck. 

Leilani didn't know and even if she were to ask, her sister would still confuse her to no ends with an answer so convoluted you'd have to be Mad as a Hatter to get. Maybe that's why her and Jefferson worked so well. 

"Where'd the mouse come from," Cora asked curiously as she took the orange and violet cup that was filled with some type of bubbling black goop. She stared at the drink and then looked at Luna's bright smile and tried to give a smile back but looked more like a grimace of self-pity. 

"Oh! He was sneaking around the garden in the back. He wasn't always a mouse of course. Though he was trying hard to mimic one. His impression was a really good one! I nearly didn't realize he was a human! So I remedied that. He seems a lot happier in this form, doesn't he? I've named him Gus," Luna said rather excitedly for someone who had just moments ago seemed dazed.

They all looked at the mouse who was now scratching its furry white belly and let out a small squeak that seemed to be a burp but merely looked cute instead. 

"Well, he does seem to be enjoying life as a mouse," Leilani said thoughtfully.

"It seems as though he was never a human in the first place," Cora commented with interest.

"What if he was a mouse who had been turned into a Human and came here hoping to get kissed by a princess and turn back into a mouse," Luna said as she stared at the mouse with wide pale blue eyes. "Leilani is Queen Mother Heart's daughter, which makes her a princess. He must be here to kiss Leilani!"

Luna scooped the mouse up, who gave a startled squeak, before holding him out to her sister. The mouse was hanging barely by it's two tiny paws and looked at Leilani pitifully as Luna also gave her a pathetic look. She was close to relenting when the door suddenly rang throughout the house. 

Quickly making her escape from the situation she always seems to find herself in when it comes to Luna, she opened the door with a snap. Emma stood a bit shocked on the other side blinking in surprise.

"Hi Emma," Leilani practically shouted cheerfully. 

Emma glanced over her shoulder before looking back at her- friend? - and giving a slight smile and nod in return.

"What brings you to my humble abode? Oh, come on in," she said before stepping to the side to allow Emma access.

"I wanted to talk to you about the wards surrounding the town," Emma said as she followed behind Leilani towards the living room.

Leilani suddenly stopped in her tracks which made Emma bump into her. She was about to ask what was the matter when she caught a glimpse of Luna in full Geisha make-up and outfit. Instead of using the typical red for her lips and blush, Luna had used a glacier shade of blade. 

"What is going on?!"

That was it! Leilani had officially given up on understanding Luna and her Luna-ness. Ever since the Hatter and her got together it seems she's gotten even more strange. 

"Luna! What the hell? I left for only one minute! This is completely absurd and impossible!"

Luna smiled so brightly that Leilani and Emma both covered their eyes to not become blinded. 

"The more absurd and impossible something seems, the more real it appears. What you see isn't always real nor is it always false. More similar to an un-reality, really," she said with a distant voice.

Both stood staring at the strange creature known as Luna without responding to that. Luna seemed to think this was the right time to finally say why she had decided to bombard them in the hall. 

She turned to Emma with shining eyes and pulled a mouse out of her sash to present right in front of Emma's face.

"Leilani has refused to help in the endeavor of returning this poor mouse back to his other form. Your mother and father made you a princess so please proceed."

Emma took a step back and that's when Leilani finally threw her hands in the air and called it quits.

"That's it! Mom! Dad! I'm heading out! Please call Jefferson and tell him to come control my sister, I think she got into his tea stash!"

With that, she grabbed hold of Emma and apparated them away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made it longer than it had been previously so hopefully you're not to disappointed. I wanted to at least get something out and I've been dealing with a sudden loss that has really hit me hard. With everything else going on it just kind of became chaotic in the aftermath.


	26. Chapter 26

Leilani quickly left the house with Emma closely following behind her and once they hit the sidewalk the other woman turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

"Today has been a rather busy day for all of us. I think Luna might have gotten into Jefferson's tea stash and tried to lighten it up a bit. I'm just thankful my mum hadn't decided to drink from her cup," Leilani answered the unasked question with a slight shudder. No knowing how that would've turned out.

"Shouldn't we be worried about Rumpelstiltskin and Cora being left with Luna?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. Daddy and mum will be perfectly safe from Luna physically. Unsure how they will fare mentally, however."

"Mum? And I was more worried about Luna, honestly," Emma answered with a touch of confusion. 

"Ah, I don't know if I told you but Cora is my mum. She's not **so** bad now that she's got her heart again."

Emma didn't even want to open up that can of worms, she was still having troubles with wrapping her head around the fact that her **own** parents looked to be her age and were fairy tale characters. 

"Nevermind that. I came to ask if you knew of a way to set up a protection around the town to keep the muggles out? It's just that, after this whole 'scare' with the stranger in the hospital, it has made a lot of the citizens worried," Emma asked as they walked leisurely down the road.

"I might be able to set up a four point ward if I gather the stones and tinker a bit with the fairy dust in the old mines. I'll definitely let you know once I have a solid answer," Leilani answered before glancing up and seeing her brother heading their way. "Well, here's where I'll leave you. Looks like my brother wants some of your time."

Emma flushed slightly at the comment but couldn't quite keep the small smile off of her face as she met Neal's hazel eyed gaze.

"Bye Lei," she said in response.

Leilani smirked before using the shadows to travel towards the city line.

In front of her she could see that most of the magic that was contained within the curse had kept Storybrooke from being 'seen' by the muggles but that ward has crumbled along with the curse. A different ward popped into existence though that made it so anyone from the Enchanted Forest would regain their cursed memories if they stepped over the ward line. 

Leilani pinched at a smokey tendril of magic to inspect when the ground started to frost and a cloaked figure oozed into existence next to her on one side of the ward line and on the other, solidified from shadows. Both Deaths observed her as she began running diagnostics to see what she could do to help this situation. She wouldn't be able to simply tear it down in case of an accident but she could provide more layers to prevent outside incidents by using the four point warding scheme. However, she would need three other witches or wizards to help power the ward stones. 

To acquire a single ward stone was hard enough, let alone four of them. She would need to get into contact with her Account Manager at Gringotts.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

**_Masssster, you'll need to absorb more of our powerssss for whatsss to come, _**hissed the Death standing on the opposite side of the ward line. 

**_You've no right to speak to Masssster like thattt. Ssssshes my Master right now,_** answered the Death shifting beside her. 

"I will call for you when I'm not currently busy. Leave before someone sees you," Leilani interrupted. Both turned faceless hoods towards her as she continued to ignore them and felt as the air began to warm once again.

Before she could get back to what she was doing, she suddenly heard the crunch of leaves and twigs snapping off behind her about fifty feet back. She pulled on the cloak's power and instantly melted into her surroundings as she watched the stranger step onto the road from within the surrounding forest. He looked from left to right with a slightly confused and paranoid look before he trudged slowly back into town. Leilani was surprised that he was up and walking after a couple of days post surgery.

She wanted to follow him but shook her head and stepped over the ward line- she had better things to do then to follow an injured suspicious looking person. 

It would take to long to get into contact with Draco from within the town so she would need to make a portkey to Malfoy Manor. Sure, it may be illegal, but it wasn't like she was going to announce it to MACUSA or the DMLE. Without much thought, Leilani grabbed a piece of rubbish off the ground and waved her hand over it as she cast a silent _Portus_ on it. 

"Ferret," she intoned with a silent snicker. 

The sensation of a hook grabbing and twisting her insides before flinging her into what must have been a worm hole encased her before spitting her onto a perfectly manicured lawn dabbled with strutting white peacocks. 

Leilani rolled her eyes at one that spread its tail feathers and began to eye ball her. She picked up her pace to reach the door before she could get her eyes gouged out and was thankfully ushered in by one of the House Elves. 

Draco had seen fit to make all the Elves working for his family were fashionably attired so they were no longer running around in pillow cases. It made her want to bust out in giggles seeing them dressed in little tuxedos and maid outfits though.

"Masters be in his office-ies," the tuxedo wearing House Elf said as he begun to lead her down the hall. This one was wearing a very smart hat with a white peacock feather jutting out of it. She kept her thoughts to herself as she marched on.

When they reached the solid oak door and heard a 'come in' from the other side, she turned towards the diminutive creature and gave her thanks. Before ignoring the silent tears of happiness and opening the door. 

"Potter, what do you want," came a snide voice. 

"Wow, Draco, I haven't seen you in months and I'm delegated back to being 'Potter'? Maybe I should've gone to someone else for help. I thought I could go to one of my best friends but maybe someone else would be preferable," she answered in kind. 

Draco arched a brow before his lips twitched slightly and he gave a defeated sigh before gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. 

"What have you gotten yourself into this time, Leilani?"

"I'm offended. I never get myself into anything.. I just always end up having to get myself **out** of situations, as you know."

Draco set down his quill and gave her a once over before reluctantly being impressed that she seemed to have no injuries. 

"Fine. What do you need of me," he asked.

"I need help with a Four Point Warding ritual, with a fifth for an anchor. I'm going to seek out Neville after you have agreed, of course."

"I haven't agreed yet, Potter," Draco shot back snarkily. 

"But.. But.. You love me and I'm your favorite person ever."

He stared at her for a minute before snorting unelegantly.

"Whatever, Lani. Fine. When do you need my help?"

"As soon as possible. But it will probably have to wait for the next full moon to make the ritual stronger. So, in seven days?"

"You'll have to get me transportation. I'm **not** taking those metal death traps that muggles use."

"You got it dude," she gave him two thumbs up as she bounced out of her chair. "I'll send you the Portkey that'll bring Neville and you to me."

"Are you forgetting that you have yet to inform Longbottom of this?"

Leilani waved his comment away as she skipped out his office door. Now, time to go bring Neville some type of exotic plant before asking for his help.


	27. NOT A NEW CHAPTER

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry I haven't updated lately but I've been in a horrible funk due to the suicide of my best friend and my dog passed away a couple weeks ago. 2020 just hasn't been nice in general. I promise I will eventually update but I wanted to reassure everyone who has been waiting patiently what has been going on.   
My apologies.


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